My Thirteenth Wedding Anniversary

                                My Thirteenth Wedding Anniversary





My thirteenth wedding anniversary, which was also my birthday, started out rather badly because three days before the large ruby center stone in my wedding ring had broken and fallen out. This upset me greatly since it was the thirteenth anniversary and I thought this was a very bad omen and I was waiting for something else to go wrong.  My ex-husband was working for Furr’s Cafeteria in Reno then and he took it in to be repaired.  I loved living in Reno; it was a nice small, quiet town with very little crime.  Of course the police force had to be good to keep the tourists safe.  I got my ring back the day of our anniversary.  It cost more to replace the ruby than the ring had cost when we had gotten married, and the jeweler had set it in crooked!!  My ex-husband had designed the shape and setting himself.  It was a very nice ring indeed.

When the day came we went out to dinner at a nice restaurant and had a lovely fish dinner and then to a country bar where a friend of his was singing in a band while he was also working at Furr’s with my ex-husband during the day.  While neither of us liked Country music, it was nice seeing his friend on stage.  We’d had a few celebration drinks and we were really enjoying ourselves for once.  At midnight Jim anonced that a friend of his was celabrating his 13th wedding anniversary and it was also his wife’s birthday.  So Jim sang “Happy Birthday” to me while we danced to a slow rock version of the song, I really loved it.  My ex always told me he loved me at least 10 times a day, but he just could not hold a job long enough for us to get established.  Thank goodness we didn’t have children.  So while we had a very loving marriage, we just did not have any financial security and I always felt like I didn’t have a net under me.

While nothing else bad happened, no three times bad luck because of my ring, we actually had a very good time that night.  I know it seems strange that marriages can be happy in one area but not in another, but life is not always fair and we have to either accept what we are given or move on.  We stayed married another thirteen years actually, even though none of my birthdays was ever was this spectacular again.  Too many birthdays and Christmases I had to forgo a present just because he forgot to get me anything.  This still is one of the more pleasant memories that I have of my marriage.  I wish our marriage had been happier, but sometimes love just isn’t enough to make up for what is lacking.  I guess everyone should have a band sing them “Happy Birthday” just once. 


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