8 Years!

(Yellowstone, 2004)

This week we celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. We love to go to St. Augustine and eat at the Columbia Restaurant. Particularly, their 1905 salad is what we drive there for. It gives us 3 hours of uninterrupted drive time to talk, which is something we rarely get a chance to do.

The Columbia Restaurant has their own parking lot with an attendant. Since I can remember, we've seen the same guy manning the entrance/exit and he is VERY hard to understand. He has a strong Spanish accent and we always get a kick out of me not being able to understand him. Even though I know the general idea of what he's going to say (here's your voucher, get it stamped by your waiter and bring it back so you don't have to pay for parking), I literally cannot understand but about 1 of every 25 words that come out of his mouth. One year, I was driving as we entered the parking lot. I knew what he was going to say, but I was so frozen with not understanding him that Jim finally said, "I understood him, go park." It still didn't register, my brain was too busy trying to decipher his words; my mouth was open, I had this dumbfounded look on my face, and the guy was shifting his eyes from me to the car waiting behind me. I finally drove forward asking within hearing distance of him, "what did he say?"

So this last visit, before Jim drove up, I made a conscience effort to listen carefully and try very hard to understand him. I got one word out of his 2 sentences: 'voucher'. When I asked Jim what he said, he acted as though he speaks Spanish fluently. He squinted his eyes, scrunched up his forehead, cocked his head off to the side slightly and said, "You can't understand him?" He easily recited almost word for word what the man said. I'm still totally baffled.

On the way out, I decided to ask the man how long he has worked there. His response, interpreted fully by Jim after we left, was that he had been with the company for a total of 42 years; worked at the Sarasota and Tampa locations and had been in St. Augustine for the last 10 years. Currently, he lived above the office and watched after the place. Wow! 42 years! That's impressive!

It was a great reminder for our marriage. Even though manning a parking lot probably wasn't what he thought he'd be doing after even 30 years of working for a company, the man is dedicated. He sits out there in the rain, lightning, cold and scorching hot Florida weather. Probably deals with lots of gringas like myself that don't understand a word he says. I certainly don't know all the details of his employment, but there had to be some sort of committment on his part to make it 42 years. Dedication, committment and hard work; ingredients for a marriage that lasts.

Jim, I love you and appreciate all you do for our family. You are without a doubt, the most giving man I've ever met and I am thankful for you. I look forward to many more years with you.