Welcome to the Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where Akanksha, Anu, Ashok, Conrad, Delirious, gaelikaa, Grannymar, Magpie11, Nema, Noor,Ordinary Joe, Paul,Maria the Silver Fox, Padmum , Rohit, Will knott, and I write on the same topic. Please do visit the linked blogs to get seventeen different flavours of the same topic. Today’s topic has been chosen by Conrad.
Marriages start from weddings and mine did with an earth shaking event. One of those occasions that one never forgets. I wrote about it some time ago and to add some lightness to this topic, my readers may want to read it here.
Various social factors are in action now and both women and men seem to have very different ideas and approaches about marriage as an institution. Here is one interesting bit of information with which many modern Indian women will relate. And another with which many Indian men will. I intend approaching this post from my personal experience without commenting on recent trends.
“A man in love is incomplete until he has married. Then he’s finished.”
~ Zsa Zsa Gabor.
I loved my late wife very much and she did indeed finish me.
Not quite in the sense that Zsa Zsa meant but in taking a rough cut stone and finishing it to become a gem. It was not for nothing that we were known as the Beauty and the Beast.
We celebrated our fortieth wedding anniversary before she left me to live the rest of my life alone without her. During the last few years of her life, my earnest prayer was that I should outlive her so that I could provide her the care that she so richly deserved. I do not have the slightest doubt that had the roles been reversed, she would have done exactly the same thing.
We saw a lot of joy together, and we saw a lot of sorrow and hardships too together, and we came out of all those experiences stronger in our bonding with each other. Like all married people, we did have our moments of discord but they did not last for long. Towards the end, we were joined at the hips as many people used to comment.
Today, as I write this, I miss her terribly, as from the coming Monday, I will enter a hospital for a hip prosthesis replacement surgery. On the last four occasions when I underwent the same experiences, she was with me and I will miss her presence this time at the hospital and during my post surgery recovery process at home.
While I see a lot of such long lasting marriages among my family and friends closer to my age, I see many marriages breaking down among the younger lot. My son was married for five years and divorced after that and on current reckoning, does not intend to get married again. I think that it is his loss but at the age of 40, he should decide for himself. I do not understand that value system, but am willing to accept that it is different rather than better or worse than mine.
