I wanted to share something completely different this morning. Something, that although we haven’t shared anything similar before, is relevant to a wedding blog. Photographer  Sandra Henri shared these very special photographs of her grandparents who this year, will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary.

I suppose it touched me because this is what we build by having a wedding, A relationship that stands the test of time, that exists when our grandchildren arrive, that love, that is still as strong as it was on the day we married, showing so clearly sixty years later. A life built together.

Sandra’s grandmother tells their story (in German, Sandra so kindly translated it for us). John and Karla are known by their family as Oma and Opa.

“We met in 1944 in the school holidays as children. Opa was 12 and I was 13 years old. We got along well right from the start. Due to our house being bombed we needed to find somewhere to live, and so moved to East Germany upstairs from Opa’s apartment for 6 months. After the war ended we moved back to West Germany and didn’t see each other for several years. When Opa was a bit older he asked an aunt “which girl should I marry?”. She answered straight away “the only girl for you is Karla”.

“Then at 18 years old Opa managed to move to West Germany too and we met up again. One day we were cleaning up a garden shed for a gentleman we knew and when we’d finished the job we sat together on the garden bench to have a rest and have some grape juice. Opa put his arm around me and asked “would you like to become my wife?”. I answered “yes, but how will we let my mother know?” (as she was not overly happy that as the youngest in the family, I would be the first to marry!). We already got along well as children and realised more and more that we were inseparable. That’s how we got together!”

“On 7.3.52 we were married, I was 21 and Opa was 20. We have been through highs and lows together, which brought us even closer. Both of us kept our own personality throughout our marriage. We accept and respect each other the way we are without trying to change each other. We appreciate each other more and more as we get older and that is like heaven on earth for us. Our faith has also helped us a lot in our marriage, and we’ve experienced His help many times. We’ve been married 60 years and hope we can be together a lot longer.”