Five Years a Writer

Val (left) and Amanda, before they knew each other Once upon a time, two girls were born — in different decades, in different countries, to different sets of parents. One was an only child (Val), the other a middle child (Amanda). Both grew up in families where the love was sound, the home secure, and the future confident because the parents made it so. These two little girls knew love as they knew air to breathe. So, when they met in Winnipeg, many decades later, on a mutual friend’s introduction, they recognized in each other their equal and their combined potential. While it wasn’t quite a coup de foudre (circumstances were too complicated for that), love found its way and, this year, they mark 30 years of building a life together. ——— Hard to believe, but true. Thirty years. Wow. While I think it’s wrong to glorify the longevity of a relationship for its own sake, it is definitely not wrong to celebrate the relationship by marking the anniversary of its beginning. Val and I didn’t