Erma Bombeck Writing Competition - Winners
2006
Erma Bombeck Writing Competition
Honorable Mention
Human Interest - Dayton
Beth Tucker-Graves
Clayton, Ohio
"Like 'Mollies,' We Swim"
| When they say the first year of marriage is the most difficult, I wonder “who is they?” Are “they” the ones who forfeited before the second? It is my experience that marriage is not defined by its level of difficulty and the year it is attached to, but ever evolving motions, fluent and turbulent, toward one common purpose…happiness. And once you have that, you must embrace it and also remember it. Sacred periods of happiness are not constant. They are interrupted by the loss of loved ones, the loss of the white lab, our first pet, whom we could almost positively say stretched our marriage nearly beyond its limit before he reached the ripe puppy age of two years old (the permanent teeth marks still on the white, wooden window sill, the four grill covers buried somewhere in the back yard). The loss of our parents break us open, only to heal us back a little less like we were before. How do I help my husband say goodbye to his father, a man I loved like my own? How do we muster the strength to transcend ourselves, to turn about deep in the midst of emotions so strong and live for the other? It is happiness, which can not only be spoken, but felt, as smiles spread across our faces when we hear tunes on the radio, which bring memories surging back. It is happiness, that thick cloud in our chests, which fills our hearts and sometimes chokes us into tears. Remembering our first years, packed in the small apartment, the office was the dining room and the living room often turned into the laundry room, pieces of clothing drying on the ends of the couch, hanging from the corners of the coffee table and draped across the fireplace mantle. We drive by the old apartment when we are in the area, the happiness can be felt for miles as we approach. The pet “mollies” we set free in the complex pond, the day we packed up and moved into our first house. Occasionally, we talk about those fish, as we are sure they are still in that pond, grown to at least one-hundred times their normal size. These are the motions, like swirls of light; we experience together, those which can not be defined by difficulty…because the complexity of marriage, the complexity of the family has changed. As we continue throughout our lives, constantly challenged by the promise and the dream of a perfect life, we strive to hold onto the happiness we have created, like overgrown “mollies” swimming together, the current gets rough and difficult to navigate, yet still we swim. |