Exactly 20 years ago today, Champa and I were having dinner at a local restaurant. When she went to the restroom, I signaled to our waiter to bring out a flower bouquet and gift I’d dropped off earlier. I gave them to her when she returned and our waiter brought us a special cake and champagne.
Everyone sitting near us broke into applause when Champa gave me a kiss. “Did you just get engaged?” someone asked. “No, but it’s our 25th anniversary today,” I responded, which led to more applause.
Champa and I have never forgotten that moment. Every five years since then we’ve celebrated our five-year anniversaries with a special trip and an updated version of the gift I gave her in 2004: a framed photo of the trip we’d just taken. The first photo, below, was from Switzerland, with a smaller photo underneath it taken shortly after we got engaged in Nepal.
Five years later, for our 30th anniverary, we went to Machu Picchu, in Peru.
For our 35th, we traveled to South Africa, including the winery shown in the photo.
Five years ago, we celebrated our 40th anniversary in Hawaii. The photo we framed from that trip now saddens us since we took it on the beach in Lahaina. We were next to our Airbnb there, which burned to the ground during the horrific Maui fires last year.
Today is our 45th anniversary and we’re adding the latest photo to our collection, this one from our recent trip to Morocco.
As with all of the others, the frame actually shows two photos — a main shot and a smaller one from elsewhere during the trip. They all hang in our family room. Every time I look at the collection, I’m reminded how fortunate we’ve been to travel so widely, especially since we “not exactly retired” nine years ago. The photos also remind me how lucky Champa and I are to still be together — getting older, to be sure, but still enjoying life and each other.
We haven’t decided yet where to shoot our next photo, assuming we’re still able to travel. We have five years to decide. Today we’ll just celebrate anew that a boy from Long Island and a girl from Nepal found each other and fell in love.
NEPAL SCHOOL UPDATE
The school we’re helping to build in Nepal is progressing nicely. Thanks to the generous support of Not Exactly Retired readers and others, we’ve nearly reached our financial goal. If you haven’t already, please donate on our GoFundMe site or, to avoid their fees, contact me directly. All donors will have their names honored in the new school. On behalf of the students and teachers in Samalbung, thank you!
"Not Exactly Retired" 