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Sleeping on the Floor Was the Best Thing for our Marriage
How not having a bed frame ensured we focused on our priorities.
“Do you want to get married, or do you want to be married.”
My father asked me an important question when I sat before him, fresh-faced at twenty-one, having just sent my brand-new fiancé off to war. I struggled with joining the excitement of those around me who wanted to start wedding planning immediately while grappling with the reality that my fiancé may not come home from war to marry me.
Without hesitation, I said, “I want to be married.”
He nodded and said, “Then we’ll figure it out.”
I knew exactly what he meant. If I focused on what was truly important, the rest would fall away, and we’d make it happen if given the chance. It’s a sentiment I carried throughout my marriage, focusing on the things that matter.
My fiancé did come home, and we had a wedding filled with so much love, laughter, and dancing. But we didn’t have anything when we started our new life together. Twenty-two and twenty-three, we’d both been living with our parents until we purchased a tiny one-bedroom condo. We had to start from scratch with nothing but clothes and boxes of memories our parents had saved from childhood, so we needed to…
