Our Anniversary Hepatitis C (Hep C) Blog-Post

Diary Post

It was our anniversary last Sunday. Six years of wedded bliss and never a cross word, honest! Okay, I'll admit it, we've had our ups and downs but what couple hasn't at some point?

We were together for 11 years before we got married. This is my cue for my usual and predictable joke of “I wasn’t sure she was the right girl for me”, accompanied by the sound of Mandy’s understandable groans.

In truth however, despite my bravado I knew the moment I met Mandy, 17 years ago that she was the girl for me. We started living together almost immediately, more out of necessity than choice, and we have hardly been apart ever since. I will concede that Mandy was not as certain about our future together as I was but she came round over time!

We decided to tie the knot when we realised it was time to have kids! We would both agree that our wedding day and honeymoon were perfect in every way. If we had to do it again, we both would gladly do so without changing a thing.

Being the virile brute I am, kids followed soon after (Mandy’s groaning again) and we now have two beautiful children, Emily (4) and Matthew (3).So for our anniversary we decided to go and see Disney’s new animated movie ‘Up’. The movie was, as you would expect, great fun with plenty of humour and effects. It was a touching story too surprisingly, but not nearly as surprising as both kids bursting into tears and wailing like banshees as ‘the nasty man’ tried to catch ‘Kevin’ – you had to be there.

After the movie, we went to Pizza Hut because the kids love pizza and pasta. This is the closest they’ve been to the McD’s thing and a rare treat. Not least because it’s a break from the norm but the ‘all you can eat’ ice cream is always a winner. As we sat watching the kids devouring there mountain of ice cream and mini marshmallows topped with chocolate sauce, we held hands across the table. Gushy this may sound but at that moment I was as happy as I have ever been in my life, especially as we watched Matthew in his own inimitable fashion, pick up his bowl and lick out the last of the chocolate sauce. Priceless!

That night, as I looked in on them both sleeping, they seemed so angelic and I could feel my heart make a contented leap. You need moments like that to keep you going and make it all worthwhile. It sustains you. Mandy and I have faced some tough times of late but for the most part we can look at the kids and say, ‘we did alright’.

As for us, we’re still rock solid if just a little jaded round the edges.

Here’s to our next 6 years together.