He Kept His Promise To Us, To Keep Us Together

I'm 66 and retired this year. Married for 44 years to the same man. My niece, my brother's oldest daughter found a picture of me the day I got married. Not the wedding pictures, a candid picture of me getting ready. She asked me if I was in love with him. I told her that women don't always experience love the same way. Like me she suffers from love for the same gender.

I got married, pressured by family, after my sister got married (she was pregnant). I stood alone for two minutes on my wedding day before my father entered the room to walk me down the isle. Those two minutes were the longest of my life, I was being led to my fate. The girl I loved was my maid of honor. We cried ourselves silly the night before, it was what it was. In that time, women just did not admit they were lesbians. It's something left for behind curtains.

My husband let my girlfriend stay with me on my wedding night. We had to undress and stand before him. before laying on the bed waiting for him. He kissed her before taking her virginity and he put a ring on her finger. We have been together all the years of my marriage. We have walked the walk, we have borne children. My husband kept his promise to us, he would see to it that we were never separated.

So no, I wasn't in love with him. I was in love with someone else. I still am. We are together, in a world behind curtains. So sad, the old women say, she never married. But she and I share the same ring on our finger, he married us on my wedding night, and promised us a life together.