Last night, my wife and I attended the retirement dinner for an older colleague of mine, a truly great man whose wisdom, kindness and support has been invaluable to me through the years. The evening, in the wake of many changes at work recently, impacted me. It made me want to raise my sights, to be more the type of man that this man is.
Afterwards, my wife and I sat in her car for about an hour, talking openly and honestly about my work, the kids, our family. As she dropped me off at my car (we had driven separately because she was running late so I went to the event directly from work), I told her, for the first time in several months, and meant it, that I loved her.
On the way home, Grieg's "Jeg Elsker Dig" came on the radio. This song played a role in our engagement, with the last line of its Hans Christian Andersen text etched on the inside of our wedding bands: The first half ("Jeg elsker Dig...") on hers, the second ("...i Tid og Evighed!") on mine.
It's a very short song, so I hurriedly tried to call her cell to have her turn to the same station, but after a few rings it went to voicemail. When we got home, she said, "I saw you tried to call me, but I couldn't get the phone out of my purse before you hung up." "Oh, no problem - I just wanted to see..." "...if I was listening to 'Jeg elsker dig' on the radio?" "Yeah." And we smiled.
"Jeg elsker Dig"
Op. 5 (Hjertets melodier) No. 3 (1864)
Edvard Grieg
Min Tankes Tanke ene du er vorden,
Du er mit Hjertes første Kærlighed.
Jeg elsker Dig, som Ingen her på Jorden,
Jeg elsker Dig i Tid og Evighed!
You have become the single thought of my thoughts,
you are the first love of my heart.
I love you as no one else here on Earth,
I love you for time and eternity!
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