18 years ago, Today.

Editors Note: You knew this was coming Dear :)

Eighteen years ago today, on January 17th, 1987, at the Scarsdale Synagogue - Tremont Temple, Valorie Lynne Holden and Lawrence William Osterman were married.  I still have a laminated copy of our wedding announcement from the local paper in Albany, NY:

HOLDEN - OSTERMAN

  Plans for a Jan. 17 wedding are being made by Miss Valerie Lynn Holden and Lawrence William Osterman.  The bride-to-be is the daughter of Patricia Holden of Annapolis, Md and her fiancé is the son of Melvin H. Osterman, Darnley Greene, Delmar, and Elaine P. Osterman of Scarsdale, Westchester County.  Miss Holden is a student at George Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pa.  Her fiancé is a senior computer programming engineer with Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Wash.

Never mind the spelling errors (it's Valorie not Valerie) and the factual errors in the piece (there's no George Mellon University), I still treasure that scrap of paper.

Valorie and I started dating back in October of 1982 (we came out of the closet and announced our couplehood while working as roadies on a Clash concert.

Valorie's stuck with me for well 20 years now, through business trips to Europe (I left on one 36 hours after we returned from our honeymoon), six months where I commuted between Redmond and Austin Tx - Monday-Wednesday in Austin, Thursday-Sunday in Redmond.

She's been there through the entire lifetime NT 3.1, with all its ups and downs, she was there for Exchange 4.0, 5.0, 5.5, and 2000, and she's still there.

She's been there through the birth of our children Daniel and Sharron.

She's been there through nine different cats (four currently), countless tropical fish, a dog, and two horses.

She's nursed me through a debilitating back injury.

She's put her own career ambitions on hold for our family, only now, twelve years later, going back to school for her teachers certificate.  She's spent countless hours in our children's classrooms making a difference for every child in those classrooms.  

She's been there for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, for fatter, for thinner, in sickness and in health.

'Til death do we part.

 

Happy Anniversary, Valorie.

I love you.

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 17, 2005
  roadies for the Clash? Are you kidding? Super duper kewel. I remember when they played in NYC in the mid 80's. I went one night and then talked the lighting guy into getting me tickets to see them again the next night. (No I didn't have to do any special favors).
  Oh and happy anniversary. :-)
• Anonymous
  January 17, 2005
  Happy anniversary!
• Anonymous
  January 17, 2005
  Congratulations :-)
• Anonymous
  January 17, 2005
  Yup, Roadies for the Clash - Valorie and I worked on the CMU Activities Board Technical Committee (ABTech), and we acted as local roadies for the bands coming into town.
  
  We announced we were dating at the big homecoming concert, which happened to be a Clash concert (pretty good one too).
  
• Anonymous
  January 17, 2005
  Congratulations to you both!
• Anonymous
  January 17, 2005
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  January 17, 2005
  Many congratulations to the both of you!
  
• Anonymous
  January 17, 2005
  Congratulations :)
  
  PS: The Clash rocks!
• Anonymous
  January 17, 2005
  > She's been there through the birth of our
  > children Daniel and Sharron.
  
  Don't tell me Microsoft is working on a way to make that optional ^_^
  
  > Never mind the spelling errors
  
  Sure. One time the city of St. Catharine's used ballots with their city name misspelled. They had contracted to a US printer to print the ballots and didn't have time to get corrections so they had to never mind.
• Anonymous
  January 17, 2005
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  January 17, 2005
  Happy anniversary!!
  gets the champagne
• Anonymous
  January 17, 2005
  It tickles me that NT and Exchange are listed before your kids. ;-)
  
  Congratulations, none-the-less. Not quite as embarrassing as Malda's proposal on the front page of Slashdot, but a pretty good attempt. grin
• Anonymous
  January 17, 2005
  Paul: Yeah.... Well....
  
• Anonymous
  January 18, 2005
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  January 18, 2005
  20 years, eh. Congratulations.
• Anonymous
  January 20, 2005
  
  Dude, do you realize how long it's been that I've known you guys?!?
  
  I miss you.
  
• Anonymous
  January 20, 2005
  Moose: More years than I care to admit? When're you gonna come to this part of the world?
  
  
• Anonymous
  January 20, 2005
  Esther-bunny! We miss you lots! How've you been?
• Anonymous
  January 20, 2005
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  January 20, 2005
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  January 21, 2005
  Right. You win. :)
  
• Anonymous
  February 08, 2005
  Congratulations from a Clash fan living in Delmar, NY.