I misspoke yesterday when I made the statement that today “would have been my parents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary.” An anniversary by definition is “the date on which an event took place in a previous year.” And on December 31, 1970 my parents Harry Laron Temple and Shirley Lynn Williams were married. And they lived for 49 years, a month and 22 days as a married couple until he passed away in February of this year. So today, December 31, 2020 is in fact, their fiftieth wedding anniversary.
Through the “better” – years of traveling, having two children and five grandchildren. Years of happiness and celebrations of birthdays, weddings, Christmases. And through the “worse” – the losses of parents and siblings, their only daughter going through cancer treatment, struggles with finances and other problems of life. But like most of us, they had many years of ordinary, good, regular life. Not a fairy tale, not a sad movie, just the marvelous and the mundane of life together. Happy Anniversary to my Mama and Daddy. You made it….although you are not physically together, you both were together for better or worse, for richer or pooer, til death did you part. I love you both.
Karri Temple Brackett
December 31, 2020
In honor of my parents, I am making the gift of a few small donations. For my Daddy, a donation to the Arkansas chapter of the Patriot Guard. In honor of my Mama, who struggles with her autoimmune disease with grace and dignity, a donation to the Sjogren’s Foundation. And for them both, a small donation to the National Park Foundation to honor the places they loved to visit while traveling.
https://www.patriotguard.org/tag/arkansas/