18 Years with Danny Ellison.
We cooked together. I painted and created a mixed media canvas called Gratitude where Love Grows. I also wrote him a poem and read it to him before posting here. Here it is.

We did not arrive here untouched. Love came with weather. With long nights and quiet apologies, with laughter that surprised us, with tears we never planned to shed.

Gratitude is not found only in the easy years, it lives in the choosing. The choosing to stay curious, to soften instead of harden, to reach across silence and call it sacred ground.

We are grateful for the days that felt ordinary, because they carried us. For the storms that taught us how to listen. For the wounds that asked us to learn tenderness in new languages.

Gratitude looks like hands still learning each other, like eyes that recognize the soul behind the fatigue. It sounds like grace spoken out loud when pride wanted the last word.

We honor the love that grew slowly, the kind that learned patience, the kind that learned how to rest.

Today we pause, not to count what was perfect, but to bless what was faithful.

Thank you for the becoming. For the growing. For the love that stayed.

❤️Stephanie Ellison
(Your Beloved Bride)