919. It was 62 years ago today Wayne and I were married in the St. George Temple at 12:20 p.m.
I posted this on September 12, 2015, just a bit over 2 years ago. But today is the official day of our Wedding anniversary! We were married 62 years ago today. Little did we know that a bit more than 5 months would be all we would have together on this earth! At the point we had this celebration on Labor Day 2 years ago, he was beginning radiation for esophageal cancer, and went through some difficult physical problems. HE NEVER COMPLAINED! It was almost a surprise when he passed away, because his last full day he dressed himself, and tried to do all he could for himself. We had put him on hospice the day before, and only that last day did he use a walker and wheelchair. He truly endured to the end of his life, with faith and dignity!
496. Our 60th Wedding Anniversary Party last Saturday, Sept. 5th, 2015.
Just a week ago today, we were honored by our family, about our 60th Wedding Anniversary, which will officially be on September 24th. We were married Sept. 24, 1955, in the St. George Temple. This post tells some about the celebration on Sept. 5, 2015, last weekend, on the Labor Day weekend when all could come. Most of the following is from an e mail I sent to family and friends, together with an update on my husband Wayne's health.
From left to right, Wayne M., Delsy, Anita, Allen, McKay, Pal, Wayne, Angie, Tacy, Pam, and Jeremy. We are wearing the shirts they gave us 10 years ago on our Golden Wedding. They have a picture of us when we were married and the inscription: September 24th 1955-2005, and also "The world is ours, we have each other". That last phrase is from a song that Delsy and I wrote almost 40 years ago, when we lived in Sandy. This is our "family song", in SATB. If any of you would like a copy, I have a PDF copy I can send to you. I tried to put it on this blog, and it won't take it. Please e mail me at: paralee.eckman@gmail.com
This picture was taken last September 20th, when we celebrated my 80th birthday (which is actually Oct. 6th). It is a more clear picture.
This was taken during the program that the family had planned. First of all they showed the video which link is above, and during it they played the song "Goodnight, Irene". Wayne chimed in and sang with it! That song was popular in 1950 here, and when Wayne went on his mission to Sweden, it was also popular there, translated into Swedish! That has been a family joke since then. Our son Wayne sang "Time in a Bottle", and the decorations on the tables were family pictures inside a bottle! Then it was "open mike" and most of them told favorite memories. I'm sorry I couldn't put pictures of all of them on here, but they are on the 2nd link from google, above.
Family pictures in bottles in the center of 8 tables.
A view of the craft table Delsy set up for the children, and those helping.
We had several tables set up with photos. This table was a "free for all" to let anyone have any picture there. I wanted to have them gone from boxes! Most of them were taken by the time we finished!
When we get together, our family loves to play games. This is one of the tables. One time I saw 3 tables each with 8 to 10 playing games.
This is Emily and Wayne, her grandpa. Emily took all these pictures. Thanks!
To all of you who were here last Saturday for our 60th wedding celebration, it was so wonderful, and it will be such a choice memory for both of us. All 9 of our children were here, and all 7 of Wayne's brother Blaine's children were here, plus many grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Wayne's identical twin brother Blaine passed away 16 years ago last March. His children call Wayne "Uncle Grandpa" We didn't try to include anyone else, as that was around 70 people.
This picture, (also blurry) shows all 9 of our children on the back row, and the 7 children of Wayne's twin brother Blaine, on the front row with us. There were many other grandchildren and great grand children there. If you want to see any of the pictures taken here are the links that Emily (our granddaughter) sent, to the pictures she took: (I seem to get the ones from google better, but the drop box ones are great also. Thanks, Emily!)
Dropbox link directly to the video for Grandma and Grandpa (works better if you download it first): https://www.dropbox.
Google Drive link directly to the video (you should be able to see the whole video without downloading it): https://drive.google.com/
This was taken during the program that the family had planned. First of all they showed the video which link is above, and during it they played the song "Goodnight, Irene". Wayne chimed in and sang with it! That song was popular in 1950 here, and when Wayne went on his mission to Sweden, it was also popular there, translated into Swedish! That has been a family joke since then. Our son Wayne sang "Time in a Bottle", and the decorations on the tables were family pictures inside a bottle! Then it was "open mike" and most of them told favorite memories. I'm sorry I couldn't put pictures of all of them on here, but they are on the 2nd link from google, above.
This week has been one just resting up, and putting away some of the books, etc., that we had on display. Grandpa Wayne had dialysis Monday, Wednesday and Friday (today). He had the radiation starting on Tuesday -- through Friday. He has the radiation at 8:15 in the morning -- Monday through Friday from now on. We go to a place only about 5 minutes from here, and his radiation takes about 15 minutes. He says that so far he hasn't had any pain, but some tiredness. A time or two he had driven himself there, but once he mentioned he was rather tired after radiation, so I'm insisting on driving him. On the 3 days he also has dialysis at 11:40 a.m., until I pick him up at 4 p.m. This weekend will be the first weekend he will have both Saturday and Sunday without either radiation or dialysis. That will be the schedule from now on. He is happy about that as there are quite a few football games on Saturday coming up!
This afternoon after dialysis he did mention a little while that he was feeling something in the area of his cancer -- which is at the top of his stomach. I thought it may be a sort of pain, as the doctor said that during the radiation he probably would feel some discomfort ? around the cancer area, as it will become a raw sore inside as the radiation shrinks the cancer. There will be medicine we can get which should help sooth the pain or whatever -- types of stomach acid helps, etc. I wondered if this was the beginning of that, but tonight he said it was a bit hard breathing for awhile, so I'm not sure what it was. But that may increase as the radiation continues. He has had 11 treatments so far.
He will be done on October 8th, so he has 22 treatments left, which makes him a third of the way through. The doctor said that after radiation is done it will take a few weeks until he is actually feeling better, and then they probably would do another PET scan to see how effective the radiation has been. We hope he doesn't have to do chemo, and the doctor has said that it may not be advisable because it would be very hard to coordinate chemo with dialysis, even in his body chemistry, etc. But this radiation should make him able to eat again. For the last 2 weeks or so, I have to blend everything he eats. It becomes very soft, and smooth, and probably doesn't taste too good as we have to avoid salt for his dialysis. But he can enjoy sweets, and so we have a mild dessert most days.
We probably won't be going many places except those two health treatments, and Church for a few weeks. I do the driving, and try to make his food as edible as possible. I have been tired also, but I'm starting to get rested up.
Our real wedding anniversary will be September 24, for 60 years. We'll probably do something at home that night. I'll include more pictures of our lives together on Sept. 24th.
Comments