Marla and I are celebrating our 55th wedding anniversary today. To be perfectly honest, I really can’t grasp the magnitude of this special anniversary for both of us! 55! Yes it’s a big number…but filled with love, a wonderful family, triumphs and trials, personal discoveries and transformations, adventures, sweet somethings, sunsets and kisses, indescribable tenderness and true friendship.

This great photo is of Marla’s bridesmaids.

We had two receptions that day. One following the ceremony included about 200 employees of Marla’s mom and dad’s company, Wesco Fabrics. I started working in the company 3 months prior. The evening reception was a grand affair, “Joline” style. For anyone who knew Marla’s mom you will understand. Friends, relatives, our New York City decorative fabric suppliers, and even a few competitors, plus a contingency of college friends from California were part of the party. To be honest I was a nervous wreck!

I’ll share a few shots of Marla and me from past to present.

I took this photo of Marla shortly before we were married.

Sailing on San Francisco Bay.

This totally sums it up for me! She has this, je ne sais quoi…a special allure, mysterious, and beautiful beyond measure! She possesses an amazing intellect (she even got straight A’s with an immense load when we dated in college), a fiery sense of justice and a firebrand in pursuit of what is right, and a wonderful empathetic heart. She may appear a little quiet and reserved, but let me tell you,…she is not one to mess with!

This is a very iconic 1995 image of Marla at Amanpuri’s Pansea Beach in Phuket, Thailand, that I absolutely love! She had undergone a horrendous regimen for stage 4 breast cancer. The year before was filled with an experimental stem cell transfer, high-dose chemo (1 in 10 patients died just from the initial chemo) along with regular chemo, radiation treatments, multiple surgeries, etc. After a time of her recovery she asked her doctor if she could travel overseas. She wanted to travel to Bali as this was an early destination and favorite of her parents. Doctors said OK…so I planned our trip, first stopping in Bangkok and Phuket. She was beginning to look like herself again and her beautiful hair was slowly growing back.

Our greatest happiness in 55 years of marriage is family!

Marla and I love our special friends of many years spread around the world!

I am so happy and blessed to be married to this beautiful lady! This was 3 weeks ago with our grandsons in Bangkok.

Mar loves her quiet time with a coffee working on her Sudoku. This was at a rental last year, 2 houses from where the “The Durrells in Corfu” was filmed.

She has an adventurous spirit. We never saw one person as we explored the medieval village of Gorbio above the French seaside town of Menton.

Marla loves to teach and share experiences. We are with grandsons Paxton and Logan at the Grand Palace in Bangkok in 2019. Her passion for teaching and sharing formed the basis for our 10 Wesco Fabrics’ client incentive trips to Bali, Thailand, France, Italy, Hawaii, and San Francisco.

And she is still exploring! This was two weeks ago in the 10th century Banteay Screy temple outside of Siem Reap, Cambodia, with grandsons, Vaughan and Owen. The excessive heat and humidity was difficult for her (and all of us) especially with all her heart meds but she is a…WARRIOR!

We can’t wait to take an adventure trip with our twin granddaughters!

“Happy anniversary my love!“

Photos: Dick Gentry. Not to be used without permission.