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Short Takes, Volume 2
(Craig M. Sampson)

After 20 years of marriage, Richard and Sarah felt like they had seen it all. They had experienced the same normal ups and downs of any long-term relationship, they supposed, but the last 5 years or so had been some of the best that either of them could recall. After getting married while still both college students, to the utter and vehement protests of both families, they settled into their lives together tuning out all the naysayers and critics. Following graduation, Richard took a position at a local firm doing graphic art design while Sarah began as a new teacher in the brand-new charter school that had gone up recently to alleviate some of the overcrowding of the single school available. Neither was pulling in a huge salary at the time but they both knew you had to start somewhere and for the time being, they had each other, which was all they needed.

Looking back now they both shook their heads in amazement at how they had lived in that first little apartment with little to no heat in the winter and sweltering humidity in the summer. But as fresh college graduates often do, they made do and somehow it had just seemed normal. Both families finally let up on how critical and harsh they had been on them as time went on...especially as their economic fortunes took off. Richard and Sarah had suspected all along that it was not them getting married at such a young age that had set off the 5-alarm protests from both camps, but that on some level both families were dreading the expected request to take them in when they discovered that they could not make ends meet on their own.

But early on they had promised each other that unless it was a matter of life or death that they would not resort to that fallback option. Sacrifices had been made and even when they themselves were on the brink of folding, Richard and Sarah plowed ahead doing whatever it took to survive. However, when Richard got a big promotion after just one year at his company all the pressure melted away life got easier both for them as well as their in-laws. But that is not to say that their marriage was all grins and giggles. When the bumps in the road came along, Richard and Sarah attributed enduring the rough times to how they had banded together since their college days when no one else believed in them.

When she was just 28, Sarah had been diagnosed with a cancer scare that shook them to their cores. But Richard was there to support her and in the end, she recovered completely and not had any sign of a recurrence since. She knew it had no scientific nor medical basis, but even years afterward Sarah still held fast to the belief that it was Richard at her side that got her through it. The later, much to his utter disgrace and shame, Richard had an affair that nearly ended the marriage. It was so unlike him that Sarah was in denial and refused to believe the facts when she found this out, but in the end, they reconciled and moved on.

But interspersed in between these challenges, Richard and Sarah had highs in their relationship that were the envy of their friends and colleagues. They were nearly always inseparable over the years giving of their time and money to various causes and charities. With Richard's steady rise in his firm plus Sarah's promotion to associate director of the charter school, they were finally very comfortable financially though to be around them you would never have seen any difference in how they acted. To all around them, they still seemed the humble, generous, and loving couple they had been back when they had nothing and were living pretty close to the edge. The only thing they ever really splurged on was travel and the purchase of this small cabin set on the fringes of the Denmore National Forest.