Celebrating a Golden Anniversary!

 

I can't believe my parents have been married for FIFTY YEARS! As the card I sent them says, "The first 50 years of marriage are the hardest." Marriage IS hard (Kelvin and I are coming up on fifteen years), but they truly have made it look easy! 

My parents have both (at my "gift" /slash request) written memoirs via the company Storyworth, which helped me get to know their stories a bit better, and to have to re-read for many more years to come. The short version is that my dad grew up on a tiny farm outside of Fisher, in rural northwestern MN, and my mother grew up in South India, coming to the U.S. for college but returning home to Madras (Chennai). They were introduced by mutual friends while my dad was working abroad in India, and their union was unlikely and unusual, but still absolutely right (and the rest is history!).

Here are some clippings from the MN archives (note: misspelling of my mom's name!)

Wedding invitations- found in an ancestry project from Vanessa in 1997!

They've both had demanding and rewarding careers with the U.S. government, raised us two "third-culture" girls, and have traveled the entire world.  They are enjoying exercise, reading, traveling with the company OAT, dog-parenting in their retirement years, and are soon to downsize into a smaller space in this next chapter of their lives.  They are very different people-- by background, temperament, and in many other ways, but they've made a very long marriage work which is truly remarkable and inspirational! 

I shamelessly stole almost all of these archived pictures from my mom, who curated them from their past albums (many of which she's been sorting through as they prepare to move), as I don't have many old photos in digital form.

1976 in India

1980

1985 MN

Arness Family, 1987

~1993 Taj Mahal 

1994 Fox Glacier, New Zealand

1996, Snowpocalypse, at our soon-to-be-sold home in McLean, VA

1997 Glacier NP

2001 Istanbul (25th anniversary cruise to Greece and Turkey) 

2005 Egypt

2006 Vanessa's College Graduation

2006 Mexico

2007 Mayo Medical School Graduation

2011, Kelvin and my wedding  

2014

Dogs they've owned and loved

Toccata (1991- 2001? )

Duncan and Freya (rest in peace)

Remy, who is currently ailing from a mouth tumor

2016 Hawaii

2022 Jamaica

Combined 145 years old (2023)

2025 Mt Vernon

2026 Morocco

We will be seeing them next/ celebrating in person with them on a Baltic family cruise this summer but for now: CONGRATULATIONS on such a remarkable milestone and enduring love.

 CHEERS TO FIFTY YEARS (and, with hope, many more!)!