On this day in history….a Spanish painter is born, my parents are married, and WW II reaches its climax

Reverse chronological order….

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was born. (June 6, 1599 – August 6, 1660)

My parents Erwin A. Thompson and Ruth E. Thompson were married June 6, 1942 (66th anniversary today).

D-Day June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

Erwin and Ruth Thompson snuggle up on a past wedding anniversary.

All of these events affected my life of course…but had my parents not gotten married, then I would not be here typing to you. My father and I spent their anniversary day together. An old family friend visiting from Montana dropped by unexpectedly and we enjoyed some hours of good talk about the passing of time.

We drove up to Jerseyville to pay property taxes and buy a part for the tractor mower. Daddy can smooze with the best of them, and does. Although we didn’t bring the ground myrtle today to plant around the Johnston graves, we did swing by the graveyard to pay our respects to Mother. “Well done all the way around,” Pop remarked of how everything had been handled. We love the little bird on the branch engraved on her stone.

We ate at our favorite Chinese buffet (“restful; quiet,” Pop said)…and went back home to rest before going to visit Frieda Lewis with a couple of boxes of the new book “Gems of Yesterday: The Poetry and Philosophy of Bee Lewis.”

I’ll never have a 66th wedding anniversary. If my first marriage had held, we’d be celebrating our 40th this fall. This honoring of my parents’ anniversary is as close as I’ll ever get to one. We find that just as mother’s birthday’s keep going on that the wedding anniversaries keep going on, too. Some folks can’t keep their vows ’til death. My father keeps his afterwards.