Friday, February 15, 2008

I am about the luckiest guy in the world...
















.
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She’s not only my wife, she’s my best friend.

I Married late (47 y/o) and fortunately for me, I Married well. My wife is not only one of the greatest people I’ve been lucky to meet (and I’ve met many), she’s my best friend, soul-mate and perhaps the kindest, fairest individual I’ve ever known.

Four years into our Marriage, I transferred from one of the best and busiest firehouses in New York City (Engine-92 & Ladder-44) to Hazmat-1. That’s entailed a lot more outside work, appx. 500 hours in outside training, which has had me out of state for up to two weeks a few times a year over the past three years. On top of that, there have always been manpower issues in my new Unit, so I wound up working a LOT more than my wife had been accustomed to earlier on.

It presented us with many new challenges, we’ve had to meet in some creative ways. I do most of the cooking around the house and being gone so much has necessitated new ways of dealing with that.

My wife works long hours too. In her “busy seasons,” she often puts in over 70 hours Monday thru Friday and works Saturday and from her home office on part of Sundays as well.

To date, everything’s worked well for us and I couldn’t ask for a better partner to share my life with.

I think a big part of making any relationship work is not taking things for granted.

Perhaps because of our time shortage, we treasure the time we have together and neither of us takes what we’ve built together for granted.

I am about the luckiest guy in the world.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awww, great Valentine's for your wife

JMK said...

Thanks Rachel...it was tough getting her permission to put up a picture...she hates pictures.

But I'm glad I stuck with it. She really is an incredibly special woman.

I believe that putting up with me, guarantees that person being considered for Sainthood in the RC Church....so she's got that going for her now.

Dan O. said...

My wife's been putting up with me for over 23 years now.

She only gets paid for her 20 hour a week part-time job, but she works 24 hours a day putting up with my and two sons' BS!

We're two of the luckiest men alive, JMK!

At least hope you got to spend Valentines Day together.

Anonymous said...

My fiance hasbeen putting up with me for four - he's endured listening to my politics. But I've endured four years of him talking shop (he's a satellite dish installer)
But I am a lucky girl

JMK said...

Hey Dan O! Glad you're still around.

23 years is a good chunk of time.

I don't get people who leave a perfectly good Marriage for a "younger" version.

To me, Marriage is not all that much about attraction (although that ofen brings people together), lust and affairs are more about that.

In my view, Marriage isn't even as much about love (although love is vital), as much as it's about building a life together.

I love Dionne very much and she is truly my very best friend as well, but at this point, our commitment is bound up in what we've built together - most of what we both have is due to each other.

I see leaving someone with whom you've built a life akin to trying to leave yourself.

JMK said...

I'd say you're both lucky Rachel.

You have your head on straight and you put your views across extremely well.

Even when we disagee, I still always respect your opinions. You're a very grounded person, that's probably why you don't always follow any given orthodoxy.

I wish you and yours all the best!

Uncle Joe said...

You are right. You are a lucky man. Nice valentines day thought. She's a lucky woman, too.

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