70 Years to Give or Take by Chessa Peak
About a year ago, I had one of the most interesting conversations of my entire life. I meet an elderly couple who were 89 and 90 years old. They had been together since they were 17 & 18 years old. They were out walking because they both exercise and enjoy being outdoors together. An eclectic old couple. The lady was wearing a tie dye and the man with a carved walking stick. I had to ask them,
“How long have you two been together?” and man said “About 70 years give or take dear.”. I proceeded to ask them more questions which they didn’t mind at all answering. Since I had my notebook handy I took some notes. “How have you managed to stay together so long without fighting?” I asked. The lady said, “We don’t fight. We argue but we are always considerate of what we say to one another and how we say it. We’ve had our ups and downs, even been separated for some time but our love always got the best of us.”.
Her husband then said, “We’ve learned together to have a willingness to work for each other and with each other. We learned the hard way but always tried to find ways to work together. Whether it was finances, children, or just living together. We learned to grow together and we 
both tried to find common ground. Sometimes that can be hard if you always want to see life your way but you can’t do that when you truly love someone. Sometimes you have to put down what you’re doing to make the relationship last. My problem was always work because I was good at what I did. I wish I’d given more time to my family when I should have.”.
With a still baffled look on my face the lady said to me, “We’re best friends, we never lie to each other and we respect each other. If I need something I can count on him and vice versa.” How incredibly blessed I am to have meet this couple. I thanked them for their time, got on my bike and rode home to post this.
*****
[contact-form to=’communitypublishingabq@gmail.com’ subject=’Subscriptions’][contact-field label=’Enjoyed this article? Type in your email address to receive similar articles, no ads, no spam, no charge!’ type=’email’/][/contact-form]
Chessa Peak has been in New Mexico since the age of 4 and is an honorary New Mexican. A bartender of over 10 years in the Duke City, musician, entrepreneur, and current student at CNM, Chessa is now currently working towards her own non-profit group that will support literacy, art and music programs for Albuquerque residents and her immediate community. Having come through a negative past, her writings deeply reflect the nature of her personal struggles in an attempt to help others overcome their personal battles.
Community Publishing brings local artists of all mediums together in creative collaborations for distribution as multimedia books while promoting literacy in our communities. #JoinOurCommunity at http://communitypublishing.org We are proud to be Marketers for the Rail Yards Market.
