Forty Seven years ago I learned a valuable lesson. Take time to eat more than one slice of your wedding cake. Savor all of the little moments of your life.

I didn’t learn that lesson immediately. It took a while.

I don’t know why we were in such a hurry to depart for our honeymoon that night. No….wait a minute, I do. But we shouldn’t have rushed. We should have taken time to eat that whole darn cake topper.

But someone told us we should freeze it and eat it on our first anniversary, so that someone took care of the chore while we hit the door through a flurry of thrown rice and jumped into a getaway car to begin our life together.

A year later Tina had gone north to visit her family and ended up trapped in a blizzard that lasted for a week.

Alone at home, I opened the freezer and looked at the clump of tinfoil covered with icicles.

I was tempted, but I waited.

When she finally returned home via Greyhound we celebrated our first anniversary and we thawed out what was left of our wedding cake. The bride and groom were sweating as they rose to room temperature.

Can you say FREEZER BURN. Yep. As much as I love cake, that cake was inedible. Totally inedible. We should have taken along on the honeymoon.

We saved the couple that stood on top to put on our 50th wedding anniversary cake, so three years from now they’ll be standing in icing once again.

They will never again be wrapped in tinfoil and frozen. I plan on eating the entire top of the cake next time.

Savor every moment of your life. Don’t put anything off until tomorrow. Half a century disappears in the blink of an eye.

Happy Anniversary Tina. Thank you for traveling with me on this wonderful journey. We’ve made a lot of great memories, haven’t we.

I love you more now than ever.

_______________
Rick Algood
January 24, 2002