Forty Years – An Inspiring Milestone

The extended Riggs clan gathered on Sunday for a joyous occasion – a surprise party celebrating the 40th wedding anniversary of my aunt Dana and uncle Bill.

Dana is my dad’s sister.  I was 3 1/2 years old when she got married, and I don’t remember much about her wedding, except that one of the bridesmaids was particularly kind to me, and she wore a groovy dress.

Welcome to 1971!  It’s probably the last time I wore a skirt that short.

I hadn’t realized until Sunday, when I asked my dad some questions about the wedding, that he had walked down the aisle with Dana.  Their father, Ronald, had died three years earlier, before I was old enough to really know him.  My grandmother Eleanor was there, though, looking happy in her pale pink dress (the skirt of which, I might add, was longer than mine, but still above the knee).

She and my grandfather were married for 30 years.  They got married at the Little Brown Church in the Vale in Nashua, Iowa on Dec. 11, 1937.  I don’t have any pictures of that event, so I can’t report on the wedding couture of the day.  But I do have this photo of them from several years later, with my dad and his brother, before Dana made her appearance:

My grandparents with sons Robert, left, and William.  Dana wasn’t born yet.

My great-grandparents on the Riggs side, G. Oliver and Islea, did reach the 40-year milestone in their marriage.  They would have celebrated it in December of 1938, five days before my dad was born.  I don’t know if people made a big deal about anniversaries back then, and I have found no indication that G. Oliver and Islea had any kind of celebration.  I’m pretty sure they didn’t have a surprise party on a golf course, like Bill and Dana did – it was winter, after all, and their older son and his wife were expecting a baby any day.

Bill and Dana with their anniversary cake.

Dana and Bill’s older daughter, Jessica, spoke at the anniversary party about how well her parents complement each other – Dana, the interior designer, and Bill, the engineer.  It’s interesting to think about how this might have applied to my great-grandparents, who were both musicians, but played different roles in the community.  A successful marriage surely involves compromise, teamwork, a willingness to forgive, and an enthusiasm for supporting your partner’s passions and interests.  If G. Oliver and Islea continued to enjoy each other’s company as much as my aunt and uncle do after 40 years of marriage, they were lucky indeed.

We are blessed to have Dana and Bill in our family, and I wish them many, many more happy years of marriage.  Cheers!