This is Farmdoc’s Blog post 821. I can’t tell which of the previous 820 posts is the most important. Or the best written. Or the most interesting. But I do know the one that defines me best is post 243 [1]. For it tells the pivotal story of my life: That I met Sweetheart Vivienne when she was 13 years old and I was 14. That it was love at first sight; or at most second. That we married when she was 19 and I was 20. That when I found the woman for me I grabbed her with both hands. And that 40+ years later I’m not letting go. Because she’s a good woman. The best. And I’m the luckiest man.
Set against that backdrop, I summarily devoured this article in last Wednesday’s Age [2]. It’s title, ‘Pros and Cons of marrying (or dating) young’, is self-explanatory. Sweetheart Vivienne and I were kids when we married. Well short of maturity. Though I didn’t consider it at the time, we could have grown apart. But, happily, we grew together. The Age piece sets out the pros and cons pretty well. I don’t need validation, but I found it validating. And I beamed when I read the penultimate sentence: ‘That if you truly find someone special, why delay it?’ It’s just another way of saying, as I wrote in post 243, ‘when you find a good woman you must grab her with both hands and never let go’. Amen.
