In a few days, my parents celebrate their 55th wedding anniversary. Looking at my mom and dad, seeing how they live their day-to-day lives, and remembering things from my own 38 years of being their child, it is a little unbelievable for me to say that my parents are in their 70s and have been married for 55 years.

In today’s society, for a couple to stay together five years, much less 55 years, is not something to sneeze about. I am still single (I told you I was waiting on George Clooney to come to his senses and propose to me), but I know of at least one of my high school classmates who has been married and divorced and remarried and divorced and is looking to a third marriage.

And I have not even had the engagement photo taken yet.

James and Gerry, Daddy and Momma to me and my three older siblings, and Papa and Nana to their grandchildren, met when she was in high school in Dodge County. Depending on who tells the story, they met at a basketball game where she was a cheerleader and he was too shy to ask her out. Daddy put his cousin up to it, or his uncle (who was close to his age). I can’t remember which.

Their courtship was genuine and old fashioned. Daddy had to have her home at certain times, and if he didn’t, my preacher grandpa probably would have been waiting on the front porch.

Knowing Grandpa Madison, he would have been waiting on the front porch even if Daddy brought Momma home early.

This year, I was in the middle of considering a serious relationship with a man who has been a friend for a long time, and I asked Momma to tell me about her and Daddy. I wanted her to tell me how she knew that he was the one.

My mom looked at me for a minute, and was silent. For anyone who knows me or my family, silence is a weird thing.

According to Momma, she just “knew.”

Daddy, after doing his usual teasing, gave the same answer.

So, if a person can just “know” when he or she has met his or her Mr. or Mrs. Right, why hasn’t George Clooney called me yet?

(Laugh. I had to throw that in there.)

I asked another couple I know recently how they had stayed together for so long, and they just shrugged their shoulders with the same type of answer my parents gave.

Being a cerebral person, I didn’t like that answer. It seemed too vague. How can you just know? Is that “knowing” something you are born with? Is it something that you learn in kindergarten?