Skip to content

A Birthday Post For My Wife

carole beach for carole knits

Today you will not hear from Carole; she has been replaced for the day by me, Dale, her husband. Why? You ask? Well, I can answer that musically with a lyric from that old classic Earth, Wind and Fire song September.

Do you remember the 21st day of September?

Okay, got it yet? If not here’s another clue: September 21, 1965. Do the math – that was 50 years ago today and we’re giving Carole the day off! (from the blog, at least, since she’s going to work as usual. the nerve of a major birthday like this to fall on a Monday. sheesh.)

Alright, now I’m sure everyone is on board. Today we celebrate Carole as she turns the Big Five-Oh!

When I met Carole she was very young and when we started dating she had just passed over that little speed bump  known as 30. By the time she was 40 we had been married for eight years and now here she is on this new milestone of 50. And a wonderful milestone it is.

Carole and I talked a lot about how she feels about turning 50 while we were driving to a little getaway to the Cape this past weekend and I can assure you she is ready and raring to take her 50s by storm. I will now attempt to sum up our philosophical discussion on birthdays into 5 decades for simplicity.

  • 0-10, you’re just little and you have fun!
  • 11-20, you become your own person but adults don’t take you seriously . . . although you will hear adults tell you to grow up. A lot.
  • 21-30, you grow up, you start making your own decision, some good and some, well, not.
  • 31-40, your plans for your life start to take hold, some dreams come to fruition, some dreams change, you raise a family and you work hard
  • 41-50, no doubt about it, now you’re an adult. You hit your stride, there’s lots of responsibility but also lots of satisfaction.

And then it happens. at least, according to Carole. You realize that there’s more sand in the bottom of that hourglass than the top and all of a sudden you are free to be the person you want to be. It doesn’t mean you won’t continue to work hard, take on new projects, learn new things and seek out new adventures, it just means you’ll have more fun doing these things because you won’t give a hoot about what people think about what you are doing. You are truly in charge of your own destiny in a way that you haven’t been before. And you come to realize that life is short and there are no guarantees so you’d better enjoy every minute of it doing the things that matter most with the people you love most.

So today we will celebrate this big birthday by looking back a little and looking forward a lot. The family is coming over tonight for a good old-fashioned birthday gathering complete with pizza and cake. (I hear Hannah has some surprises for her mom, too, something about a signature sangria? I think I’ll play it safe and stick to beer.) I’d sure appreciate it if you’d all send Carole a birthday wish because I know she appreciates all of you who read her blog and you are important to her.

I will say, as someone who is a bit, errr, older than Carole, that I do remember the 21st day of September in 1965. I am so glad and grateful that the journey Carole began on that day eventually crossed paths with my own journey because I sure do love her.

I’m going to end this post as it began, with the lyrics from a song:

May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever young

Happy Birthday, my darling, and many many more.
Dale

This Post Has 57 Comments

  1. Sending warmest wishes for a very Happy Birthday, Carole! I’m so glad our paths have crossed as well as you brighten my world each and every day! Enjoy this special milestone with your family, and may the year ahead be filled with abundant blessings, much love and happiness, and many grand adventures!!!

  2. Happy Birthday Carole. Such a lovely heartfelt post from Dale. The sincerity and honesty is just so sweet. Also the perspective as told by Dale is very relateable. Wishing you a wonderful year and many more. Celebrate away!

  3. Happiest of Belated Birthdays! I turned 60 last month, and if you think 50 is big…

    With my new Mac I don’t get automatic notices of RSS feeds anymore, so sometimes I’m a little late in reading your posts, but I read all of them with gratitude. That was very eloquent of Dale. He’s a real treasure, as is Hannah. I bet you had a great party. Forward ho!

  4. Sorry I’m late to the “party”!!! I’ve been on vacation myself (annual beach week in Panama City Beach with college buds) and not reading blogs… Lovely post from Dale for sure, and after having read the rest of your posts I can tell your birthday was a suitable celebration for a momentous milestone! I’m a few years ahead of you (11) and can confirm that life just keeps getting better! Here’s wishing us both many, many more!!!!! 🙂

  5. What a lovely post! Happy belated birthday. I am catching up on a few things today, because I was on a cruise from NY to Boston, Portland, St. John and Halifax and without phone or internet for the better part of last week. I actually liked having to be unplugged for a bit. Sounds like it was a great 50th celebration!

Comments are closed.

Back To Top