57 years

My grandma is one of my favorite people. She's not your typical sugary sweet grandma who is always baking cookies and pinching your cheeks. (I'm not even sure if those exist or you just see them in movies.) She's sarcastic and sharp as a tack. I know, I know... I had to get my sarcastic side from someone...
Anyways, I digress... I mention her because today is her 57th anniversary, and she's been bringing it up most any chance she can get for about a month now. I have this weird memory (that is completely useless in real life) to recall dates. Birthdays, anniversaries, dates of any sort of significance (and many of no significance what-so-ever) have a way of staying lodged in my mind forever. So, I have no idea why she feels the need to remind me of things, but she does. Therefore, I feel the need to pretend I have no idea what she's hinting about whenever she brings up her birthday or anniversary. I am however a good granddaughter who remembers to call her on all these special occasions. This morning I hugged her at church and told her "Happy Anniversary" and promised to swing by her house on my way back to school.
At 2:47 this afternoon I found myself driving down the street and pulling into her driveway. A place of familiarity since she has lived there are long as I've been on this planet.
It is the home in which my father grew up, and I still can picture him and my two uncles running around the yard and jumping through the sprinkler. It always makes me smile. Stepping through the door I am often greeted by my grandma sitting at her kitchen table watching a game show and tackling a crossword puzzle. She always seems to have a sort of scowl on her face, but I know she is one of the most loving women I have had the pleasure of knowing.
Today, I also had the pleasure of being greeted by my grandpa and uncle who were also sitting with her. I tell my grandpa "happy anniversary" and make a snide comment about how impressive it is that he's lasted 57 years with my grandma without going crazy. (I shutter to think my grandchild will make the same joke about me 60 years from now...) And next I hand them a card which is sappy and I know will make my grandma smile. (She loves the pretty cards with the calligraphy words.)
Soon it is just the two of us, me and my grandma, sitting at the table. I pull out a deck of cards and her cribbage board and we do what we always do, play cards. (And I ALWAYS have to win) The conversation soon picked up and I told her how amazing it was that she was still so in love with my grandpa after all these years. When I see them look at each other or my grandpa playfully tease my grandma, there it is. That look in their eyes, the sparkle that I see between my parents too. They are even more in love now after 57 years of marriage. Meaning thousands of fights, compromises, disagreements, kisses, hugs, angry words, loving words etc. later they have just fallen harder for each other in a world where the chances of a marriage surviving can be decided with the flip of a coin, heads or tails, only 50% of marriages last.
I see them and know... that's what I want my marriage to be like. God has a special guy picked out for me, who will look at me like that 50+ years down the road. I just know it...that is all.