Fifty Years Ago Today

Fifty Years ago today, my parents were married at Our Savior's Lutheran Church in West Salem, Wisconsin. They were young and in love and full of hope.

My mom, Ruth Marie Anderson, was 20 years old. My father, Kenneth Duane Shaler, was 26. They had met during the previous year in Rochester, Minnesota where my mother was working as a Medical Transcriptionist and my father was attending Rochester Junior College. A friend of the family recently told me that they were engaged after only one week of dating!

A year after their wedding, my older brother Stephen was born (May 29th...the big 49 coming up for him!). Five years after that I arrived.

We had a typical 60s life in the small city of Beloit, Wisconsin. My father was a design draftsman, my mother stayed home with me until I started school, then started working as a typist at the Beloit Corporation where my father worked.

In 1971, at the age of 35, my mother died of lung cancer. She had gone through two years of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, etc. Life was no longer typical for any of us during her final year of life and after her death.

In 1990, at the age of 60, my fater died of lung cancer. He had happily re-married, and I had gotten three great step-brothers out of the deal. Sixty is too young to die, too.

So I think of them today, and their marriage that started out with such joy, and ended too soon, too tragically. Were they here today, they would have four grandchildren to share the event with. My Nephew, Ross, 18 years old, My Niece, Kelsey, just turned 16, and my two daughters, Amelia, 8, and Margaret, 5. I know a big party would be scheduled for tomorrow. We would all have been there, somehow.

I really want to celebrate my 50th wedding anniversary with my current husband, with both kids there.. and hopefully some grandkids, too...that would be nice. I acknowledge (more than the average person will, I think) that 29 more years together is less likely than many other options. At times I am filled with pessimism that there is any chance it could ever happen. Other times I am filled with hope that it can. Today I choose hope, in memory of my mom and dad.


This picture is of Charlie's parents on their 50th wedding anniversary, seven year ago. (The same day as Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip)