Happy Anniversary

Almost everyone from Misty Falls had been there.  It was a grand affair, the biggest event of the year so far.  Richard Bowen and Eleanor Price had been married on Valentines day, sixty-five years ago.  The party to celebrate their anniversary would be something to talk about for a long time to come.

It had not been the elegance of the gleaming marble in Court house, or the fantastic live 50's band that everyone was still talking about.  It wasn't even the magnificent buffet that Preference Caterers prepared, or the flowers that the florists must have had flown in from some far off tropical location.

This celebration included nearly everyone from town.  Everyone knows the Bowens.  That is to say that everyone loves Richard and Eleanor.  Especially their granddaughters Samantha Parkin and Taylor Akerson and Morgan Wallace.  The girls acted as the party planners for the big event, pulling in everything that they could that would represent their grandparent's favorite things.  It wasn't hard to know what those things were.  All they had to do is watch their grandparents.  

Year after year they would see their grandfather finding Magnolias for his wife every time he could.  Of course they all knew the story, they had heard it from their grandmother many times as they grew up.  It all started in 1952, the two of them met at a dance, shortly before he was sent to Korea.  He remembered everything about that night, it was when he had fallen in love with her.  She had also experienced love at first sight that night.  After he left, much to the dismay of her siblings, she monopolized the families record player,  listening to music from the dance.  She wore out several albums as she listened to The Ames Brothers and Les Brown and Rosemary Clooney, all because she had danced with him when those songs were playing.  It reminded her of the moments that they had spent together, and she missed him so much when he was gone.

Over in Korea, magnolia trees grew wild all over the grounds of the base where he was stationed, their scent reminded him of her perfume.  When he took pictures of the flowers and sent them to her, with the note that said that he remembered her every time that he walked by the fragrant blooms, she cried.  That, she told everyone, was the moment that she was sure that she would spend the rest of her life with Richard Bowen. 

Besides the flowers. Magnolias! and the music, and the food.  The thing that everyone remembered about the big party was the look on the faces of Richard and Eleanor Bowen as they danced the night away.  No one ever doubted the Happily Ever After that they had found with each other.  It was written all over their smiling faces.

Everyone is still talking about it.  It is hard to forget how they felt watching the two sweethearts together.  Deep in their hearts everyone dreams of finding the kind of love that they share, and watching Richard and Eleanor together lets them believe that it will happen!