70 years of love trumps 6 weeks of winter

Every year I've felt sorry for the poor rodents all across the country that get dragged out of their dens as the crack of dawn to see a "shadow" and predict the weather. It's kind of hard for them to NOT see their shadow because of all of the television lights and flash bulbs going off during the process.

This year the majority of the country's "official groundhogs" supposedly "saw" their shadows. Depending on what part of the country you're living in, you don't really care that there will be six more weeks of winter because "winter" as we've always known it hasn't existed this year. Lots of people are blaming it on global warming. Funny thing about that is this -- the local news channel went through their archives of recorded temperatures for the month of January all the way back into the early 1900's. The average temperature in January 2012 doesn't even rank in the top ten of the warmest temperatures. The warmest was in the 1930's.

If you mention Groundhog Day to most people, they either think of the poor rodent awakenings or of the movie starring Bill Murray. I, however, have pleasant memories of associating Groundhog Day with a different type of emotion -- love. My Maternal Grandparents were married on February 2nd, 1942. Sadly, they've both passed away but I still remember seeing them exchanging flowers or gifts or planning to go out for dinner instead of worrying about whether or not Spring was coming soon. They loved each other very much and even after my grandfather had a stroke, my grandmother stayed right with him to help him. I know it wasn't easy on her, but she was there. And then after he fell and broke his hip and had to move into a nursing home, she went every day to visit him. She'd even do his laundry and often take him food. We told her that we paid the staff to take care of those things, but she wanted to be the one taking care of him. It was always hard to get her to take time for herself just to go out to lunch with us, even when he was telling her that she needed to go. When he passed away, she was terribly lonely but I could tell that the love was never going to end. Today, the two of them rest side-by-side in the family plot. If they could, I'd bet that they'd still be holding hands today.

So, I dedicate today's blog post to their memories. Sure, I could sit and write funny stories about groundhogs or the weather or any other number of topics. But today, on what would have been their 70th anniversary, I'll remember the love they had for each other and consider myself incredibly lucky to be in a loving relationship.