The other day Sheri dropped my favorite coffee cup. The cup was empty, because I had finished my coffee. Still, I gasped. History was crashing to the floor. The cup had belonged to my grandparents, a prize they received for donating money to the Polish National Home in Hartford, Connecticut on the occasion of its 60th anniversary in 1990. It was a deep cup, solid and steady, with a smooth lip. It had a few scratches, but I’m a sentimental sort who likes drinking out of a cup from which his grandfather sipped.
Sheri dropped the cup and it made an awful sound against the floor tiles, but it didn’t break.
The next morning when I filled it, a puddle appeared around its base, seeping from a hairline crack. “Sheri,” I said, “I need a new favorite cup.”
So Sheri came home with one. It’s white with colorful polka dots.
“It’s happy,” she said.
“I like an old cup,” I said, pulling one from the cabinet. I picked one we’d bought at Powell’s Book Store in Oregon, a cup that’s coffee stained and scratched, a chip in the handle. “I like a cup that’s been around, that has character. I like a cup that tells stories.”
Sheri said, “I like a fresh cup. A clean one. One that’s new.”
Then we ate breakfast, neither of us realizing that we had also been talking about the reasons we married.
Love reading all your posts. It is great to find a couple with such an age difference having a successful marriage. Me and my husband have a 17 year difference as well, 18 years most months. We have been married 3 years. He was 20 when we met in parking lot 4 years ago. It has only gotten better and it started out amazing. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mango, and congratulations to you and yours on your marriage! Here's to its ongoing success. So, you met in a parking lot? There's a story there. Flat tire? Bumpers colliding? Shopping cart racing?
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