First Love, Decision Portrait Series.

(Above:  First Love, Decision Portrait Series.  Stitched words:  I married my high school sweetheart; Ditto; May 25, 1979.  Xylene photo transfer on tea-stained muslin.  Hand beaded and stitched.  Click on image to enlarge.)

Cindi and Bob went on their very first date the week before she turned sixteen years old.  They got married when she was twenty and celebrated their 30th anniversary just last year.  They have two beautiful, college educated, talented daughters.  They're a great couple.  Steve and I have known them for over a decade.

(Above:  First Love, detail.  Click on image to enlarge.)

One of the "secrets" to a successful marriage is the ability to be both a "couple" as well as "two individuals".  These are two special people, with their own special lives! Cindi is a feminist, an award winning professional writer, an adjunct professor in the Women's and Gender Studies department at the University of South Carolina, and a co-owner of the arts magazine undefined.  Bob is a very busy emergency room physician.  He's also a home brewer and beer connoisseur/expert/aficionado....with impeccable taste (even if he insists the dark beer is good!) 
 

(Above:  First Love, detail.  Click on image to enlarge.)

Together, Cindi and Bob love to travel.  They research food and beverages. There was the "year of wine" and the "year of beer" and years for various international cuisines.  They support visual arts, literary arts, and dance.  Time together is enriched by time involved with all sorts of other people, interests, and through trust.   

Since I, too, married my "first love" (though I met Steve during my very first week at The Ohio State University), I can safely say that Cindi and Bob "grew up together".  Steve and I grew up together too.  We celebrated every step we took, apart and together, into the world of adulthood.  There was never a "his" and "hers".  There has only ever been an "ours".  Undoubtedly, one of the best decisions we all made was who to love forever!