"Hard to condense our life - it's been going a while! Yes, we did a self drive holiday to the US in 1986 with 3 kids when hardly anything was accessible and 'winged it' ... "We met initially in 1970! Anders was able bodied and loved anything fast .. planes, cars, boats, motorcycles & snow skiing...
Had a short romance, I was young so didn't last ... A few years later, Good Friday 1973 Anders had a motorcycle accident which nearly claimed his life and left him with serious internal, shoulder and T3 complete spinal fracture dislocation, surgery to realign 3 discs and free a trapped cord impossible at that time. Mid 1974, our paths divinely crossed and in no time I was totally convinced all I wanted was to spend the rest of my life with him!
We were a young couple who had never had an intimate relationship with anyone else or each other before we married.Less than 3 months later at 21 & 24 we launched into a life full of surprises! I was told he could never father children and list of what should have been daunting prospects like possibly only living 15-20 years more! I moved 400km from my career, family & friends. It was pretty tough for me, those early decades, carrying much of the weight of all the physical needs of life. Miraculously we conceived shocking the doctors... 3 times in total!!! Blessed to be able to say we have raised well adjusted kids who love and support us both. All now married, they have given us 7 granddaughters. .
While we have had incredible mountaintops in our 44 years together there were some truly challenging valleys.
Our shared Christian faith has been our strong foundation in times of helplessness, fear, frustration or failure.
I feel so blessed to be the wife of such a strong, wise, gentle, resilent and compassionate man. He is my rock.Now to age and finish our race strongly, but not too soon. We promised ourselves for years a trip to Norway for our 40th anniversary. Debilitating, overwhelming nerve pain for years has been a deep valley and in desperation surgery to deal with complications from the original injury was attempted & has helped." - Julie
It won’t always be easy. Whatever you embrace, there will be moments of doubt, moments of darkness, moments of adversity. And when adversity strikes, well—I can offer you a little trick for that as well. Actually, it’s not mine. I used to know the great English author, T.H. White. Among other things, he wrote “The Once and Future King,” (four novels in one book that encompassed his adaptation of the Arthurian legends). That vast tome became the base of the show “Camelot,” in which I was fortunate enough to play the role of Queen Guinevere on Broadway. T. H. White’s message—Tim’s message—is one I carry with me wherever I go and I would love to share it with you today. In “The Sword in the Stone,” (book one of this magnificent quartet), Merlin says the following about adversity to young King Arthur: “The best thing for being sad is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honor trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then—to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting.” After four years of intense learning, this may be the last thing you want to hear today. But I am talking about becoming a life-long learner. When adversity hits go out and learn something.