Celebrating at Home

This past Tuesday was Roland’s and my 41^st wedding anniversary. Unless we are traveling, Roland usually takes me out to dinner at Café Borgia and I give him a small but tangible gift. This year we did things a little differently.

Since Café Borgia was still closed to dine-in patrons, Roland and I did the next best thing and ordered take-out meals to eat in the privacy of our home. Roland had ravioli and I had lasagna with cheesecake for dessert. And, of course, lots of their good bread. We used the good dishes and silverware but left the everyday tablecloth on.

My anniversary gift to Roland was also different this year. Instead of getting him something tangible, I ordered the sheet music for “If I Had to Do It All Over Again” by Bobby Springfield. Roland and I listened to Roy Clark singing it on our many trips to Nashville last year, and each time I heard it I thought, “That would be a perfect song for our 50^th wedding anniversary.” But that’s nine years away, and would I even remember about it then?

So I found the sheet music on eBay and sang it to Roland as my anniversary present to him. I can’t give you the full text, or even most of it, without violating copyright laws, but the general message is expressed in the first four measures of the chorus: “If I had to do it all over again, I’d do it with you.”

And I would.