Back on September 24, 2022, I celebrated 30 years at the Ontario bar – a big enough accomplishment to be sure.

If you want to read about that or listen to the speeches – watch some video and stuff, here is that blog entry

That was one thing, but this other 30 year mark is a seriously bigger deal.

He looked like this when I met him by the way – this is my old apartment on Strachan at Richmond just off the park……..it was a WHOLE SUIT! – and that’s the litigation bag gifted to me by my old friend Mary Boyce who saw that I was very poor and carried file documents in paper bags from the grocery store. So she sent it to me unsolicited and free one day. I digress but Mary is worth it.

My long suffering spouse Roy and I had our first real date at the wedding of one of my childhood best friends on Sept 4 1995. That friend is often reminding me of this fact as I have always forgotten the date. Yada, yada, yada and fast forward to today, September 4, 2025. 30 years later and still going strong. What a miracle.

The first 30 years — what we are calling the “let’s see how it goes first” phase — is now complete.

We’re there now and we must mark this milestone.

These are early pics though perhaps not quite the absolute earliest – although the second one below might just be that actual wedding! Only my friend Sue will know for sure…… Oh my God, I think it is!!

30 years with one other person by your side is a life-long tally that deserves respect and acknowledgment.

In our case, it has not been an easy journey. We’ve lost Roy’s Dad, both my parents, had our two amazing children. Moved from rented apartments, to a little condo townhouse to our detached real and permanent (read; we’ll die here) house. All within a square block off the park in the deep dark heart of downtown TO.

We have had every kind of severely serious mental health and physical health crisis you can imagine.

Today, for example, we will celebrate our 30 years together using our special love language, wherein Roy gets to pack my post-surgical wounds and do a little magic with the dressings.

Our relationship has been perhaps somewhat atypical, at least for the times that were.

First baby was a shock and a happy miracle, all things considered – we were not expecting to become parents. But yet here she was, Scarlett Tabitha

Because he had a real job with benefits and parental leave, he was the primary care-giver to our children in their first year, with both kids, while I went back to my sole practice or little partnership days or weeks after each birth – you know, to keep the work alive and pay some bills.

Here is Roy on TV talking about being a “Stay at Home Dad”

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0234amxj3RQZgjAHSVL8GxwrA

Then there were two:

Then suddenly this happened to both of them and to us

They grew up! – So, so fast. Everybody is constantly graduating something!

In between there, there were about a million of these – and GO JAYS – this is OUR YEAR!! (actually)

THE GOOD NEWS IS NOW THAT THE KIDS ARE YOUNG ADULTS

I MIGHT CONSIDER GETTING ENGAGED, IF NOT QUITE MARRIED

AND I THINK I FOUND THE RING I WANT

CONGRATULATIONS TO US!!