Gwen and Maggie

Well, it's been over a year now that Gwen and I have been together. Her web page has linked to mine for even longer than that. On her page, she says a lot of wonderful things about me, and about our relationship, and while I've pointed back at hers, I haven't really had anything to say here on the subject for all that time.

I'm reluctant to say much in so public a forum as a web page about our relationship. I certainly do consider her to be my wife, as she does me. And while we are married, we're certainly (as we say in the Aikido dojo) "not dead yet". We manage to have more fun being together than should be legal, so I suppose it's only natural that the marriage isn't legally recognized. We've each been though times so difficult as to be very scary, and might well not have made it through those times but for the support and love we've given each other.

It doesn't get any better than that, relationship-wise.

My previous marriage lasted 23 years, until my ex- and I finally hit an obstacle we couldn't overcome. When you've been with somebody that long, and the relationship ends, it's pretty devastating. For the ensuing two years, it was really easy to begin to belive that that marriage was a "once-in-a-lifetime" thing--not to be repeated--especially since many, many people never have a relationship like that ever in their lives. I've been blessed with Gwen coming into my life exactly when we each needed each other the most, and I'm here to tell you that a "once-in-a-lifetime" relationship can happen to you more than once in a lifetime.