In Sickness And In Health

My wife is truly amazing.

I believe it was the author Saki who once wrote in 'Reginald on Besetting Sins' that "women and elephants never forget". This is in fact a classic misconception. It turns out that they're actually not particularly bright creatures at all. In test cases they frequently show themselves to be slow and indolent, rarely capable of offering anything but the very minimal levels of base intelligence.

Elephants on the other hand....

It would appear that elephants, women, and indeed men have terrible memories, as my wife and I discovered recently on the morning of our 6th wedding anniversary, which we both completely and utterly forgot.

In fact, we forgot with such spectacular style that it wasn't until my mother phoned at lunchtime to wish us both well on our happy day that we realised our total oversight. After putting the phone down, we looked at each other slightly sheepishly, hugged and wished each other a belated happy anniversary. No cards, no presents, just a kiss. Then I went back to bed.

In actual fact I happened to be terribly ill, and she had promised me that I could spend the morning in bed, away from the chores, away from the kids (more for their benefit rather that mine.)

So, as I lay in bed feeling like shit, leaving my wife to deal single handedly with World War 3 downstairs I realised how easy it is to miss the important things in marriage, and indeed life. Send as many anniversary cards as you like, as many presents as money can buy, but nothing really matters more in a marriage than a bit of love and understanding.

We may have forgotten to spend a fiver down at Hallmark, but the vows we made six years ago stood solid as a rock. In sickness and in health. That's what I'm talking about.