IELEV8

We celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary more than a week early and it turned out to be just days before Mark died.  Mark created a treasure hunt of sorts, with clues he had written, taking me all around the city to places that had special meaning to us: where we shared our first kiss, our first date, our first lunch date, our first anniversary, etc. All week, I had been hoping that we were going to get away for the weekend, since we rarely have a chance to do so now that we had three small children.  I was, quite honestly, pretty frustrated with him because I didn’t think he was planning anything at all. However, what Mark planned for me was far more special than any vacation getaway ever could have been. It is a day that I will treasure for the rest of my life.

He was insistent that we share the entire experience on Facebook throughout the day so that people could “follow” our journey.  I was really hesitant about this part of the plan, as I much prefer to be the person behind the lens. However Mark managed to persuade me to step outside the box and pose for “selfies” with him all around the city as we relived the best moments of the last 10 years together. I urged him to wait and post all the images at the end of the night so as not to blast everyone’s newsfeed with photos of Mark and Erin in love all day long, but he convinced me otherwise, saying, “But I really want everyone to see how much I love you.”

Late that night, after one of our most beautiful days spent together, I was still feeling a little shy about the entire social media portion of the experience and not wanting anyone to think we were being pretentious about our relationship, I posted the following:

“No social media illusions here. Marraige is hard work, but there’s nobody I’d rather work at it with. We’ve weathered our share of storms, but as my dear friend reminded me recently, ‘Thunderstorms make rainbows.’ I love you, Mark. Thank you for showing me a rainbow today.”