memorablemeanders.blogspot.com

Friday, March 4, 2011

Thirty nine steps...

uh ... years!

On our wedding day, 4 March 1972

Me on my wedding day 

Grant and I met when I was still a tender fifteen-year-old. He and I were in the same school in a small town in the Natal Midlands. We married four years later - I was nineteen he was twenty-one!

Today we're parents of two handsome grown sons, parents-in-law to gorgeous daughters-in-law, grandparents to five beautiful children. (like my blogger friend, Diane, I'm not biased, am I?) Here we are with oldest two grands: Eryn and Joshua

Today, 39 years later, I can honestly say it has not always been plain sailing. We have been through very tough times, not least, when in our fifties, he was in West Africa and I lived in South Africa. I later joined him and although we were seperated again for about two years while he was employed as single status in another company in West Africa, when he changed jobs and went to North Africa, I went with him.

We returned to South Africa after the project in Khartoum wound down in mid-October, 2010 and were home for three months. On 18 January this year, Grant received a phone call from a former collegue, Nico,  now the managing director on a mine in Western Kenya. While Nico telephonically offered Grant a position, I was standing in front of my husband of almost four decades, arms folded and tapping my foot. ( I'm serious, I was!) When he  asked Grant if I'd be accompanying him, Grant showed me thumbs up and said: "Of course, Jo is always ready to go to Africa with me. "

We sacrifice seeing our family and friends back home, we don't get to enjoy our SA home but we are together, and that's what counts. While we were in Nairobi with  Nico and his wife, Sue  a few weeks ago, I asked him that if  Grant had said I was no longer in the Hedges nuptial picture,  would he, Nico have continued with the job offer. He said: Absolutely not!

So here we are, Grant and I,  together and celebrating thirty-nine years of marriage in a beautiful valley in the Great Rift Valley, Kenya,  East Africa.

Praise God!

11 comments:

  1. Hi Jo, I loved seeing both of your wedding pictures... What an adorable couple!!!!

    Happy Anniversary.... 39 yrs. huh????? Wow--that's incredible. Glad you get to go with Grant when he takes a new job....

    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  2. Congratulations Jo on your Anniversary. Best wishes!
    Blessing both.

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  3. I'm always touched and happy to hear of a couple that has stayed together through the ups and down. You have both accomplished much in your time together and may God continue to bless your union as you continue in Him. Love and blessings. Happy Anniversary! xx

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  4. A wonderful story. (You looked SO young!)
    All the best to both of you.
    Love, K

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  5. Hi Jo,
    A very Happy Anniversary to you and Grant, and may you enjoy many more.
    ☼ Sunny

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  6. Oh what a romance! (And that from a lady who used to write romance novels!) You looked like a little girl playing dress up in your mother's wedding gown! You were so young and just lovely!! But you know, you both have grown up beautifully (Actually, your face looks the same! Just not 19 which is good since you are a grandmother!) You are such a lovely couple! And those grandkids...they are gorgeous! Congratulations and many many more years of happy adventures and love!
    Ann

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  7. Happy 39th Anniversary, Jo!!! What a pretty young bride you were and what fun gradparents you both are today!
    Congratulations to you both! Have a wonderful day remembering and celebrating your life together :)

    Hugs,

    Des xo

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  8. Very best wishes on this big day...
    You should feel privileged (I have been an expat myself since i left Uni)as you had 40 years of adventure. There are so many people who spent the last 40 years of their life going from home to the office and vice versa, the same boring routine... It's a big sacrifice to not see family and friends often but you value more the relationship when you see them occasionnally.
    And anyway when we take we have to give...

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  9. What a cute and pretty bride you were ! We married in 69, but I was already 25 and Mr. G 27. We had met just a year before and lived together ever since. The marriage was just because at that time if you weren't married you couldn't rent an appartment ! I had a one room flat and he moved in after we met, but of course all this was secret, lol !
    Anyway congratulations I think we belong to species which disappear !

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  10. Congratulations and thanks for the photos. May you have many many more returns of the day.

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  11. Happy anniversary. 39 years beats us by 2! You were such a handsome young couple, and you still look great together, all these years later.

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