Silver Anniversary

Our trip to Iceland and Denmark was a success. Wally attended the international stamp exhibition and saw the land of his ancestors. I had fun poking about on my own in Reykjavik and Copenhagen. Both of us enjoyed the time we spent together riding around Jutland in a rented Honda (a tiny car, not a motorcycle).

Wally controlled our finances. Our air fare and hotels were paid for as part of the package arranged by the Chicago Scandinavian Stamp Collectors Club. When we were alone, he looked for cheap restaurants. Before the trip I made reservations at inexpensive inns and bed-and-breakfasts for the week after the exhibition closed. Wally made no complaint about the cost of things. At Roskilde he even bought me a little silver Viking cross to wear under my blouse.

I thought, “Surely we can afford to take another trip to Europe in a couple of years.”

Two years later, as our 25th anniversary approached, Wally surprised me by asking, “What do you want for our anniversary?”

I suppose he thought I’d say, “Take me to dinner some place nice.”

I said, “Take me to Paris!”

In August, the month of our anniversary, Northwestern University, where Wally obtained his master’s degree, was sponsoring an alumni trip to Paris – air fare from Chicago (where we lived) to Paris and two weeks in a hotel with continental breakfast for $750 a person. A bargain!

I was thrilled when Wally signed us up for the trip. I would see the city of my dreams! After all Wally and I had been through in the 25 years, we would be Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman saying, “We’ll always have Paris.”

Two weeks later he came home from work one night and told me, “I cancelled the reservations.”

I was crushed. He mumbled something about not being able to afford it while Martha was still in college. I was working. I paid all of Martha’s tuition, board, and fees at St. Olaf College. But Wally was adamant: He would not take me to Paris.

It was not the first time he broke my heart.