Wow, is this THE best birthday card a guy could wish for, or what?

[DFW]

At the stroke of midnight here (we are on Central European Time), my wife brought me a cool German DVD, a new Mark Knopfler CD release, and a card saying:

LIFE IS SHORT
Break the rules--Do More
Need Less--Smile Often--Be Brave
Stay True--Dream Big
Forgive quickly--Kiss Slowly--Love Truly
Laugh Uncontrollably And Never Regret Anything That Made You Smile

And I still have, after 44 years, my partner who still has this smile at age 65 (she doesn't turn 66 until June):
[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[MLAA]

1. You are a lucky man!

[DFW]

31. I am indeed.

And I'd be an idiot not to know it.

[FakeNoose]

2. Zum Geburtstag viel Glueck!

[DFW]

32. Vielen Dank!

Wir haben es vor, richtig zu feiern heute.

[BigOleDummy]

3. Happy

Birthday to you! You must be doing something right to keep such a beautiful woman happy and smiling. Prosit to you on your special day.

[DFW]

33. I'm not quite sure what that something is

But I'm not about to stop now. We met 44 years ago in a smoky cabaret in what was then West Berlin.

One look was enough for me. She took a LOT more convincing

[NanceGreggs]

4. Happy Birthday!!!

[DFW]

34. Thanks, Nance!

At this point, you start to hope there'll BE a next one!

[babylonsister]

5. Lovely! Happy Birthday!!! nt

[sprinkleeninow]

6. Happy Birthday!

Many Years in Health and Happiness!

Me and mine are looking at 46 this year.

Na z'drovje!

~sprink
💙🗽🌊

[DFW]

35. 46!!

Last edited Mon Mar 19, 2018, 10:31 AM - Edit history (1)

We're just getting started by comparison.

Спасибо!


**on edit--that is, if you meant 46 years married. If you meant you are both 46, then we have somewhat of a head start on you.

[sprinkleeninow]

80. State of Matrimony: gonna be 46 years. 👰!

I never imagined. [Hub 66 this year. Reviewing SS. I have a mental list of where he could work if and when he retires. His dad worked till 75 y.o., in his business anyway. I need him working and not home all day!]

When his parents came up from FLA on their
35th, we stayed in and I cooked my head off. Pulled out all the stops. I thot, gee, thirty-five years. How does one feel at that point.

Now I know! And beyond. Gone by fast.

Positioning ourselves for what's to come, if you sense what I'm saying.

My step-dad's family is in U.K. I pray we do not approach despairing so that we consider a re-patriation. We visited in the early 70's. Loved it. I could handle it.

"Many Years!" to you and your bride!

[DFW]

84. Quite a story!

Thanks, and hats off to you two as well. Your husband and I are the same age, it would appear.

[CatMor]

7. Happy Birthday!!!

May you and your lovely wife have many more.

[DFW]

36. Thanks!

At our age, you no longer know how many. She has beaten cancer twice now, and I have heart issues, but so far, we've played "beat the reaper" and won every time.

[Hekate]

8. Happy Birthday, DFW!

All the best to you and your wife!

[Silver1]

9. That is just so perfect.

Happy Birthday! I am copying this one, and I will show it to my husband. We're coming up on 30 years!

Your wife is beautiful!

[DFW]

37. I don't know how she does it.

She did have the good graces to pass on her genes to our two daughters:
[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

Here is the card if you want to scan and print it:
[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[Silver1]

61. Yes she did.

That is a lovely picture. Thanks for the card, I took a screenshot and will be passing it on.

[sprinkleeninow]

81. Good lookin' family....way to go!

"His Choicest Blessings Be On All!"

[DFW]

85. I brought the bacon, my wife brought the genes

I like your avatar. I have something with him and me in my archives:
[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

Those were the days!

[sprinkleeninow]

90. Are you the other 'guy'? If you are, you appear 'petite'. 😁

My other half is also 'petite'. 6'3" and packin' bacon. He played for Rhode Island, offensive tackle, back in the day.

I want Barack back!! We went wrong here. Very , very wrong.

[You have a mahvelous family!]

[DFW]

91. Guilty as charged

He is slender and tall, although not tall like WJC is. I'm about 5'11"

[handmade34]

10. Happy Birthday!

[dhol82]

11. Awesome!

Nice to be loved like that.

[DFW]

38. Saved my life early on!

I would have been a useless wreck without her.

[Ohiogal]

12. Happy Birthday

You are such a lucky couple!

[DFW]

39. I'm lucky, anyway

She's stuck with me. Maybe not quite as lucky as I was!

[Mr.Bill]

13. The face in that photo

is not just a beautiful woman. It is the face of a lovely soul.

[DFW]

40. Very intuitive

And 100% accurate.

Ask Steve2470 when he gets back. He just met her for the first time 3 weeks ago.

[DemoTex]

14. DFW: I copy very few things on the innertube ..

But I copied "Life is Short" for my wife of 44 years (on 4/27). Always love your posts on DU. I think we might have overlapped in the past. Maybe in Texas. Maybe Barbara Jordon.

[DFW]

41. Maybe some event in Dallas?

I'm not there much, but maybe some event where the TX Democratic Party was involved? Matt and Dolly Angle, or Aimee Boone? I've never had the honor of meeting Barbara Jordan.

We haven't been married for 44 years, but we did meet 44 years ago this year, so we've known each other exactly two thirds of our lives. It's difficult to imagine there was time before, and I'm sure you see it the same way.

By the way, here's the card, if you want to copy it:
[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[gademocrat7]

15. Happy Birthday! Celebrate!

[DFW]

42. We will, thanks! n/t

[NBachers]

16. Somehow, you seem to have made the right moves. Keep making 'em!

Or keep someone around you who makes them for you.

Happy Birthday, DFW

[DFW]

43. Someone around me, who just happens to be my wife, maybe?

I lucked out, pure and simple, and I'm not making any apologies.

[Honeycombe8]

17. A great card! And a hot babe of a wife! Who'd think she's 65?

You must be doin' somethin' right!

Happy birthday.

[DFW]

44. No one except me and our daughters REALLY thinks she's 65.

Case in point: last year, she was at some doctor's appointment, and the receptionist was logging her in, when she commented there was an error on my wife's info card. My wife said she hadn't noticed any wrong information, so what seemed to be in error? The receptionist said for this date of birth to be correct, you'd have to be sixty-five years old. My wife said, that's right. I am sixty-five years old. The receptionist couldn't believe it.

[longship]

18. Happy happy to you, DFW!

Be good and have fun. If you cannot do both, have fun.

[DFW]

45. I'll take door number two. n/t

[CaliforniaPeggy]

19. Happy Birthday, my dear DFW!

What wonderful gifts she brought you!

All of those and all those years married! It doesn't get any better than that!

[DFW]

46. That is getting advice from the master

You have not only been married longer than we have, but you (and LM, of course) are one of only two people on DU who has met my wife. You know better than most what my most important birthday present is: the same one I have for the other 364 days of the year.

[leftofcool]

20. She's hot!

[DFW]

47. She was always that.

Still, I miss the days when she used to make me turbans on the beach......
[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[syringis]

73. Oulala...

Si tu as encore ton turban et ta barbe, tu vas te faire refouler de ton propre pays avec Trump !

[DFW]

75. Ouf! Je suis hors danger

La barbe, je l'ai encore, mais j'ai perdu le turban en 1981!

[Ilsa]

21. Happy birthday, and thank goodness for cool women!

[DFW]

48. The world would be one cold place without them! n/t

[Bavorskoami]

22. It is said that next year, at 66, life is just getting started

Isn't that what Udo Jürgens told us? "Mit sechsundsechzig Jahren da fängt das Leben erst an".
As they say in my favorite part of Germany "Ois Guade zu Deim Geburtsdog" and keep up the good fight on DU.

[DFW]

49. Bayerisch? Even Germans hire a translator when they go down there.

München is OK, but once you get out into the hinterlands, the might as well be speaking Urdu.

I don't know about life beginning at 66. We've had some good times before now, and a few ordeals, too. Just keep on keepin' on.

[2left4u]

23. That's great!

Happy Birthday to you and congratulations to both of you!

[DFW]

50. Thanks for that! n/t

[mountain grammy]

24. Happy Birthday, DFW.

[DFW]

51. Thanks Grammy! n/t

[krakfiend]

25. Happy cake day!!!

[DFW]

52. Plenty of cake on the program

I rented out our favorite Greek restaurant for a big lunch for our friends here, and my wife and her girlfriends made up enough cake to supply a New York deli for a week. Germans know how to do that from their DNA, I think.

[sprinkleeninow]

83. "Στην Υγεια Σου! Opa!"

Europeans must be some of the original 'foodies'! They know how to do it up rightly and usually more than enuff!

Remember rhat commercial with Dom DeLuise? Shows him from the lower neck up fretting if he made enuff antipasta. Then pans down to humongous tray laden! That's typical Europeans. I know, my family of Slovakians and husband's family of Swedes! Ai yi yi!

🍖🍝🍛🍤🍣🍥🍗🍟🍔🍕🍷🍹🍸🍻🍺🍵☕🍜🍲🍢🍡🍧🍨🍦🍮🍩🍞🍳🎂🍰🍪🍬🍭🍉🍒🍇🍐🍎🍏🍑🍌🍓🍑

[DFW]

88. It's all Greek to me

Ευχαριστώ πολύ !!

This is definitely a continent of foodies!

[PatrickforO]

26. May you and your marriage be blessed with good fortune, peace and love. n/t

[DFW]

53. Thanks Patrick

We wouldn't mind fewer visits to the oncologist in the future, either! She has suffered enough for both of us. That she manages to maintain her smile is probably one of the reasons cancer has lost to her twice already.

[SunSeeker]

27. She's lovely. As is your outlook on life. Cheers!

[DFW]

54. What she saw in me, I'll never know. Luckily, she is nearsighted

By the time she finally got a good look at me, it was too late

[SunSeeker]

65. She sees better than you think.

She can see your lovely soul.

[DFW]

68. I don't know if she saw anything like that

But as long as she saw enough to stay with me for all this time, I'm fine with whatever she saw

[MustLoveBeagles]

28. Happy Birthday

[samplegirl]

29. Happy Birthday

To a guy who has it all and smart enough to know it!

[Upthevibe]

30. Happy Birthday!

And what a great picture....

[DFW]

56. The camera and my wife have been carrying on a love affair behind my back for years

I tolerate it.......

[DFW]

55. OH yeah.

I am not so stupid or so modest as to deny that I hit the jackpot with her. My 44 year long birthday present.

On the rare occasion we go out, she says she needs time to make herself look pretty. I tell her it's too late, and she says what do you mean by that? I tell her Nature already took care of that for you. And I get another one of those amazing smiles of hers.

[Cha]

57. Happy Birthday, DFW!

Very Cool Wife!

[DFW]

58. Mahalo Cha!

As for my better half, you will get no disagreement from me!

Her only major lapse in judgement was her inexplicable willingness to spend the last 44 years with me, and that is an error I am in no hurry to point out to her.

[Cha]

59. I think it's so wonderful. and

a small miracle when people find each other and happily stay together for the long haul.

Not just anybody can do that..

So congratulations! & happy birthday.

[DFW]

60. It wasn't a free ride

In the beginning, I used up every cent of money I could scrape together at the time to go visit her, and phone calls to Europe were very expensive at the time. She had her studies to complete (she became a social worker, which requires a diploma in Germany), so she wasn't as flexible.

Eventually, I convinced my employer that they REALLY needed me overseas a lot, and then, years later, we had her cancer episodes and my cardiac episodes.

But, the long haul was indeed worth it. She is just SO easy to get along with, I couldn't imagine having lasted this long with anyone else. My view is that if it FEELS right, it probably is, and if it feels wrong, it probably is. With her it felt right from the beginning, and it still does.

[Phentex]

62. Happy Birthday a tad late...

a wonderful card and a wonderful wife. Sounds like a very good day indeed!

[DFW]

89. Not at all late

I'm on Central European Time, 6 hours ahead of the East Coast of the USA, and my Bday was all day Monday!

[malthaussen]

64. Happy Birthday!

-- Mal

[niyad]

66. a belaetd HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you, and thank you for sharing your day with us.

You always bring a smile when you share your lovely family with us!

[DFW]

67. Thanks, Niyad

And it's still Monday here, so not belated at all

And I am not in the least ashamed of being proud of what the great Stan Lee once referred to as "your fabulous females."

[denvine]

69. Happy Birthday!

Wonderful message! You are a lucky man!

[denvine]

70. Happy Birthday DFW!

What a wonderful way to celebrate your birthday. Love the card! Enjoy your special day!

[bluescribbler]

71. Happy Birthday

Lucky man. A toast to you and your better half, from a Nobel Prize winning poet:
"May the Good Lord bless and keep you,
May your path always be true,
May you always do for others,
And let others do for you.
May you build a ladder to the stars, and climb on every rung,
And, may you stay forever young."
Bob Dylan

[DFW]

74. Thanks! What happened could be described with far more banal lyrics:

"Then I saw her face. Now I'm a believer"

That should in NO way be construed as an endorsement of the song as whole!

[syringis]

72. Bon anniversaire DFW

Ton épouse est superbe.

Je vous souhaite encore plein de longues années de bonheur.


J'édite mon post pour rajouter que :

Tes filles sont magnifiques et autant ton épouse que tes filles respirent l'équilibre et la sérénité

De belles âmes.

[DFW]

86. Je suis bien d'accord

Elle est en faite superbe, et j'ai eu une chance incroyable. Je serai menteur si je disais que je l'ignorais.

Les filles étaient bien dificiles!! Mais la patience valait le coup, et le résultat est tout à fait ce que nous avons espéré.

Effectivement, des belles âmes. La combinaison unique peut-être?

Merci en tout cas!

[badhair77]

76. Happy birthday, DFW!

The saying on your card is beautiful and must be shared!

[DFW]

78. Share away!

She found the perfect card--as she always does.

[hlthe2b]

77. Wonderful, DFW. A happy happy day to you and the Missus

[DFW]

79. Thanks from us both

Now 9 PM here, and I have to be in Sprout City in 12 hours. The days whisk by so quickly.

[TuxedoKat]

82. Happy Birthday!!!

Hope it's another great year for you and your family!!!

[DFW]

87. Thanks! What we'd REALLY like is a cancer-free year

We've seen enough of that for a while. If we can go a year without some ugly disease cramping our style, we'd be very happy!

(First grandchild due in May--THAT will be something new to contend with as well!)