40th Anniversary

Today, 10-10-10, Michael and I celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. In October, 1970 we had met 5 months and 1 day earlier, just a few weeks shy of my high school graduation. My granny lived near Hempstead, Texas and for over a year had been telling me that I needed to meet John Michael. He was her paperboy. I guess you could say that the Houston Chronicle played a big part in bringing Michael and I together. So by chance, if there is such a thing, I was visiting my grandparents that May weekend when I saw a red Mustang entering their subdivision. My granny is saying, “You better get your hair fixed, I just know he is going to stop by.” Seriously? Why would he do that? Anyway, fixing my hair was not an option. I had just washed it and rolled it in about ten orange juice cans and it would be another 3 to 4 hours before it would be dry. So as our discussion continues I hear a car door close.

We sat at my granny’s kitchen table for over an hour. I can’t remember everything we talked about, but I remember him asking if I would like to go with him to finish his route. In what has now become the first of a long string of family “events” and just the beginning of the Nall Saga, we end up in a cow pasture when the Mustang’s brakes failed. As they say, the rest is history. To be continued…

One of our wedding gifts was a poem that my father wrote for us. The framed hand-penned poem has moved from place to place with us and hung on many a different wall. It has served as a prayer (of sorts) for me and now I would love to share it with you. My dad could have never dreamed that this was possible. Enjoy.

Our best wishes, Michele and Michael
May the notes that your lives sing
Forever be of kindness, forgiving and those of TRUTH above everything.
Notes that ring clear against bigots with sounds of meaning, better than mine.
Patience displayed, contempt not errors
Not envy those that great blessing find.

May God guide you beyond reproach,
Hear not sour notes others may sing.
Employ faith in your judgments
But TRUTH sings loud in everything ---
A song, not of Life’s imagined journeys
As idealized in old gray dusty books,
But one of ideal cooperation of your graces, fearing not the comments of doubting looks.

May God enrich your tolerances daily
To the tune only brave angels can sing.
Have no pious hates or holy wrath
But TRUTH above all with everything.
Put notes to service, sing duty with joy,
Deny not others voice to disagree,
From bitterness do not sin, dream, be bold,
Then Life’s song you’ve sung. Heaven’s for thee.

A poem I wrote, just for you two on this your wedding day – 10-10-70.
All our love forever, Dad and Mom Miller