Another Day

So I cried for two days, and now I'm moving on.

Last night Darrin and I gave each other new wedding rings. When we were married, Darrin and I didn't have much money, and we paid for our own wedding and reception. We had a great time, and it was all just perfect. We wouldn't have changed a thing, really. It was so - us. We had decided we couldn't afford wedding rings, that we would hold off until we could afford them, although we had found a picture of some bands in a magazine that we just loved. They were so simple and beautiful, and they suited us so well.

As it turned out, Darrin and my parents made a secret plan that I wasn't privy to. My parents had an old friend who was a jeweler, and they had him make our wedding rings. It was all very sweet, and it was my parents' gift to us for our wedding day. It was to be a surprise for me - Darrin would just pull them out of his pocket after the sealing. But my bratty sister, Sarah, just couldn't stand it. She always had to ruin things for me. She was so bitter about her little sister getting married before her, she just had to find some way to spoil things for me. Evidently my parents had asked her to go and pick up the rings when they were ready. I was talking on the phone with her, and she nastily spat something out about how bugged she was about having to go pick up the wedding rings. Of course, I was totally blown away. What could I say? I told Darrin that Sarah had told me, and he was so disappointed. I pretended, for my parents' sake, that it was a surprise, on the day of our wedding.

But those wedding rings have never had the same luster. They have always carried my sister's bitterness and hatred. Of course I have loved them because they were our wedding rings, a symbol of our commitment and devotion, a token of our love. But this spring when Darrin was deathly ill and in the ICU for a week, his poor body was so full of infection that even his fingers were so swollen, we had to have his ring cut off. It was horribly mangled in the process, and there was no way we could repair it.

So, we've been scrimping and saving and just yesterday were finally able to pay off our new wedding rings. Last night we lit candles and exchanged our new rings. They are so beautiful. They're silver, with celtic knots going around the band, which is edged in gold. It was such a sweet evening for us, and all of my sadness was forgotten.

I just love my Darrin so much. I always think that eternity can't possibly be long enough.