Yesterday, a cop looked at my spouse and me directly, and asked, “what binds you together?”
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\nNo, get your minds out of the gutter… nothing BDSM-related here.<\/p>\n
My spouse and I were invited to witness a small marriage ceremony for a law enforcement officer and his (male) partner as they married. The other witnesses were the parents of both men. That was it.<\/p>\n
I am being discrete at the request of the guys who married because they have not fully disclosed their relationship (yet) to others, including where each of them work.<\/p>\n
What I will focus on, though, is a question that we were asked on Saturday, and why we were invited to the marriage ceremony.<\/p>\n
To begin, I had a bad day on Friday with something else related to a mentally disturbed person behaving in ways as to attempt to disrupt my employment. I have an attorney involved in that ugly situation, so I can’t say anything else.<\/p>\n
On Friday evening, I snuggled closely to my spouse for comfort. Of course, he was there for me. <\/p>\n
Then on Saturday, he was feeling well enough that he could get out, and I wanted his company as I took ten senior pals grocery shopping (on three trips.) My friends and I got a little silly; we sang a Capella in the grocery store (and enjoyed watching other shoppers’ reactions)… we stopped for a Slurpee at a 7-11… and we laughed. This too my mind off this bad thing going on with that mentally disturbed person, and also helped my spouse relax.<\/p>\n
When I was bringing one of my sr. pals home, her son was there with his partner. They greeted us, and told us that they were being married the next day, and they were nervous.<\/p>\n
My spouse and I sat down with them and talked for a while. It was then that we were first asked, “now that you’ve been together so long (over 23 years), what binds you together?”<\/p>\n
We described our relationship. The good times, the bad times, and the changes we both have been through. My spouse was especially touching when he said how much he appreciated how I have cared for him during a long period of illness. I described how I feel every day when I think about my spouse and what he means to me. He’s honest, intelligent, strong, supportive, financially stable, and has integrity beyond compare.<\/p>\n