30

Today I have been married to my best friend for 30 years.

I met Joe and started dating him my senior year in high school. Our first date was September 21, 1974. We went to a football game with friends and out to dinner at El Chico. I remember going home that night and telling my mom about this guy that ordered Chicken Fried Steak at El Chico. Unheard of, of course. I mean who DOES that? Shortly after that my mom took him to El Fenix cafeteria and loaded up his plate on all things Mexican and properly introduced him to Mexican food. In the coming months we would also introduce him to red beans and cornbread, fried okra, real southern fried chicken and many more things southern.

From that point on Joe and I were together. I don’t recall any major fights, arguments or break ups for us. We just seemed to belong together. We dated while Joe was attending college at UTA and I was working at my first full time job as a clerk for a Justice of the Peace. We both lived at home and life was great.

In 1976 my parents moved to New Orleans and I moved into my first apartment. I had never lived by myself and it was a whole new experience. Joe was now living in Arlington and in his second year of school. We continued to date and in December 1978 Joe graduated from UTA. He had been doing an internship in a company through school and was offered a full time job.

We became engaged Christmas 1978 and planned a September 1979 wedding. It would be our five-year mark and seemed the best time to get married. We signed the papers for our first house in the summer of 1979. On the weekend of our wedding, September 15, 1979, they broke ground on our first house.

In February 1980 we moved into our first home in Grand Prairie. It would be at this house that we would bring three most amazing children into the world, Paul in 1981, Kelli in 1983 and Jay in 1985. In 1985 I became a full time mom and stayed home with the kids. We lived in that house until 1990. We had some great memories and lots of fun parties in that first home with friends and family.

We moved just down the way into what is still our home today in September 1990. In this home we watched our three young children become the most amazing adults one could wish for. We saw our kids graduate from elementary school, middle school, high school and college in this home. We watched all three kids learn to drive and we became a five-car family. We saw our kids fall in love in this house. We welcomed our first grandchild into this home.

We will always have great memories in this house as well. We had great neighbors and made great memories with them. New Years parties, theme parties, impromptu parties, poker parties, holiday cook-outs, game nights, driveway basketball, bunco. You name it; we probably did it in that neighborhood. For a time we had quite a reputation for being the place to live! We made great friends and life long memories. It seems like so much of who we are as a couple and as a family has centered around the kind of home we have had that was always open to all. I know my kids friends will account for that, just ask one of them.

We were a sports family, particularly baseball. It became our life with two boys in the family. Joe coached, the boys played and Kelli and I followed them wherever they went. We were a baseball family until Jay’s junior year in college when he played his final games. Today Paul is a high school baseball coach, we have another Ylda waiting in the wings to take up the sport and more to come with future grandkids. What a ride it’s been and still promises to be.

Joe has stayed with the same company all these years and is now in his 31st year with a company that has gone through bankruptcy, name changes and buy outs through the years. He has grown with the company and has had many rolls through the years. International business kept him quite busy since the 1990’s and on the road a lot. I felt like a single mom through those years with three active kids. It was through this international business travel that Joe knew he would love to have a foreign assignment some day. I was able to join him on a few trips and also got the bug to see other parts of the world. Opportunities did present themselves but with the kids so active and established we chose not to pursue any until they were grown.

Which brings us to today. Here we are in 2009, thirty years later, empty nesters living in China! When Joe said he wanted a foreign assignment before he retired, I was hoping maybe somewhere in Europe. I do have to say despite my initial reservations, this has been a good move for us. I’m glad we have this opportunity.

Moving away from our families was hard but it has also brought us much closer together. In the course of being together for so long and raising three very active children, we naturally let life come between us and our needs for each other. I wouldn’t change anything through the years because I knew we loved each other. However, anyone with a family knows what comes first and that’s OK. I just thank the Lord for the opportunity Joe and I now have to spend this time together and reconnect in our lives. These years together alone away from family will strengthen our foundation and will help make us the best parents and grandparents to our loved ones when we go home.

We are exploring the world together and experiencing what most people can only dream of doing. Joe has challenged me to do things out of my very SMALL comfort zone and I am eternally grateful for that. He is my best friend and I am so blessed to have him in my life.

I thank God every day for sending me Joe. He is truly the love of my life, my soul mate. When we first met I think most thought we were very different. He came from such a diverse background that he was quite different from anyone me or my family had ever met. He grew up living in various parts of the world because his dad was a civil service employee. He introduced me to the idea of experiencing places far beyond Texas and the U.S. Joe is calm; I am hot headed. I like to think that over the years some of his calmness has rubbed off on me. We have come to think a lot alike on so many levels. I guess that’s what spending years and years together will do, truly make you one.

God has blessed us in our lives together and continues to watch over our marriage. We have gone through some rough times with the loss of both of his parents to cancer that only made us hold on to each other much tighter. We are surrounded by wonderful family and friends. As we continue to grow old together, I hope we will continue to be a living example to our own kids on what a marriage is all about. I hope our kids will see the enduring love we have for each other and see how we treat each other in the name of love. My own parents have been married for almost 60 years and I know how important their example has been in my own marriage. I’m not sure where we will be in a couple of years when our time in China is done but I find comfort in knowing that we will be there together and having the time of our lives.

On this special day, I simply say – I LOVE YOU JOSEPH! Thank you for loving me.

Last of all, thank you God for sending me Joseph John Ylda.

Love to all!

Note: Sorry there aren’t any pictures of us over the years. They are all currently in storage.