A special day

I met Hanno on my 28th birthday, he was 37. He was recovering from a divorce and the death of his daughter. Two years later we were married at the registry office in Hamburg, Germany. Today is our 28th wedding anniversary.

Here we are on 28.9.1979, a couple of dags about to get hitched. We didn't have much money so it was just Hanno and I and our witnesses at the ceremony. We invited family and friends to a celebration at home later in the day.

Like every marriage, ours has had its up and downs. We both have strong personalities and have fought like Kilkenny cats over the years but now that I look back, it's been a good marriage, and stable from the start. Although I grew up not wanting to get married, when I tied the knot, I went into it knowing it was forever. For me, there was no going back.

I think that's one reason why our marriage has survived, we knew it would be tough at times but we weren't going to walk away when it was. There was also love, respect and trust along with the commitment, and those four important elements held us together in the rocky times. Our sons were the icing on our cake. They taught us all we now know about patience, pride, gratitude, understanding and unconditional love.

It's really easy now. We fit together like a pair of old gloves. Oh, we still argue sometimes about silly things but those arguments are forgotten ten minutes later. Our lives have developed a kind of relaxed easiness. We are living in a beautiful part of the world, our days are ours to do with as we want, and we enjoy each other's company. We've grown into that, it's like the payoff for the times that were difficult. I knew that Hanno and I would be together forever, but I didn't think it would get better every year and I didn't think it would be this good.