50 years is the official time lapse between repeating our marriage vows and today. The time your Mother and I have been sharing time together is actually much longer.
Sometimes good things in life just happen. Your Mom and I volunteered to design and build a float in 1954 for the High School Homecoming. A planning session was held at your Mom’s house on Plymouth Street. It was her smile. The smile lit up the world. That same smile still lights up my world today. And so it began!
We laughed together. We cried together. There were movies, lots of walks and shared school events. Uncle Otto’s, the A&W and the local Dairy Queen were regular stops. Our midwestern roots gave us common values and somehow sharing our life together seemed to grow stronger with time. Almost like it was meant to be.
Your Mom was always supportive of my going to college. I guess it implied a better life. We knew it would evolve into marriage, a home and family some day. We just knew!
Our marriage 50 years ago was the best thing that every happened to me. It provided the “center piece” event for our life and my career. Grandpa George and Nana encouraged me to switch college goals to engineering and they were the catalyst to making Marquette a reality. From there things just got better. Along came Debs. She doesn’t remember, but being the first child, I took her everywhere in my free time. We went to the park. We visited Grandma Alice (who loved little girls). We visited Grandma Myrna who doted on her first Great-Grandchild. Debs got the “Princess treatment”. It was a special time. She was special. My life was changing. When Kelly came along, the enjoyment doubled.
The excitement of moving to Milwaukee in 1963 for my first “real” job at Allis-Chalmers was bitter sweet. Your Mom and I looked forward to building and sharing our life together but Nana was heart-broken when Debs and Kelly left the Steger household. You two girls provided an energy and love that had become normal on Plymouth Street.
It just kept getting better. Chris was born in 1964 and was the only Milwaukee baby.
Moving to Sheboygan in 1967 felt good. I had a new engineering job and we were now within minutes of our families. It meant our first house, our second house, two cottages and a successful career. Paul and Margaret were born in Sheboygan, Five children all brought a different joy to the family. Yep, there were tears but there was lots of laughing, growing and achievement. Sharing took on a whole new meaning.
Appleton, cookies and retirement have evolved. 50 plus years have been a blur but I wouldn’t change a thing.
The center piece of our family has been your Mom. She has always been there for all of us. She is still there for all of us. She has been everything I thought she’d be when we dreamed of a life together. I got to share life’s journey with the love of my life. It was the smile. It makes people melt.
So to my Wife and your Mom, Thank you for sharing the journey. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY.
Love,
Dad