Happy Anniversary

"Happy Anniversary, Eddy darling."

"Happy Anniversary, Clara dear."

It was 6 AM, but they were already awake. Normally they slept until 8 PM, but today ... the tension ...

Yesterday they had received a letter of congratulations from Her Majesty the Queen, signed by Herself, and this afternoon the mayor and his wife would visit them. That was customary when people were celebrating the 60th anniversary of their marriage.

"Sixty years," Clara sighed.

"Yeah," Eddy said. "Such a long time ago ... But I remember the day of our wedding like yesterday ... You were such a beautiful bride. When I saw you in that marvellous white silk dress with that long veil of lace, I got tears in my eyes, remember?"

"Mm ... and you were such a handsome groom ..."

Lying in their twin beds, they rejoiced in the remembrance.

They had met in February 1942. He was 27 years old and she 26. Skating on a little frozen lake they had bumped into each other. It was love on the first sight. One year and a half later, on August 9th, 1943, they had married.

"It was my mother's wedding dress," she said, "which fitted me exactly. Old fashioned, but very nice."

"You looked like a princess."

It had been wartime. Holland was occupied by the Germans and everything was rationed. Nobody had enough coupons to buy textile for a wedding dress, and silk ... impossible to get ... destined only for parachutes of the Luftwaffe.

The first year of their marriage was a very happy one. Everything was scarce: food, milk, clothing, combustibles and so on, but in their small home there was an abundance of love, joy and tenderness.

"Oh, how beautiful she was," he thought.

The first time he saw her naked was after the wedding party. Remembering how shy she was that first time, blushing when she undressed, and how beautiful, he smiled. And the expression on her face when she saw his erection ...

"His member," she thought. "It seemed so huge!!! Frightening!"

She had still been a virgin, with no experience at all, but he had been so tender, so considerate that first night!

Naked they had lain, body to body, in each others arms. She had been a little bit nervous, feeling his hard penis against her stomach, but when he had kissed and stoked her, she had got more at ease.

She sighed, remembering how he had caressed her buttocks. Mm, it had felt wonderful! After that he had cupped her bare breasts in his hands. No man had done that before! Her nipples had stiffened with delight and he ... oh, my God ... he had kissed them and sucked on them, sending flashes of pleasure to that spot between her legs. She had felt she was getting hot and moist there.

Then he had licked at her belly button, making her giggle. She smiled remembering. He had also pulled at her pubic hair and she had giggled again.

And then, all of a sudden, he had put his full hand on her genitals! "Oh, my God," she had thought, "what will he think of me. I'm sopping wet!" But he had seemed to enjoy it. "Mmm," he had said, you like it, Clara, don't you? Shall I carry on?"

"Oh, yes, please, go on," she had whispered even before she could think.

Eddy chuckled, remembering. He had kissed her labia and she had quivered with desire, opening her thighs for him. Oh, the sight of those moist swollen lips ... He revelled in the remembrance. Sixty years ago, oh, my God. His fingers had spread her lips and his tongue had licked at the inside, tasting her fluid for the first time. Oh, my God.

She had gasped and shuddered when the tip of his tongue had touched her erect clitoris. While he kept on tickling her love button, she had panted and moaned, tongue between her lips, eyes closed, her face red with passion.

He had decided not to penetrate her. Then first night of their marriage should be filled only with joy and happiness, and not with pain. He would deflower her when she was ready for it. Not now.

Gently he had put the tip of his penis between her labia and moved up. Lying on top of her, with his legs between hers, he had embraced her, stroking the head and shaft of his penis against her clitoris. Crying out they had climaxed at the same time.

"Oh, that wonderful first orgasm," Clara thought. What a sensation it had been! She hadn't even known what an orgasm was, that it existed! Her mother had never told her about anything like that. She wondered why, for it had been so delicious! The first weeks they had done it twice a day, sometimes even three or four times! What a delight and what a fun! And Eddy had been so sweet ... The desire to have him completely inside her had grown and grown.

"Please, Eddy, take me, enter me," she had begged one night. He had brought her near orgasm before he actually did. She had felt a sharp shooting pain, but it hadn't prevented her from climaxing. Afterwards she had wept ... not over her lost virginity, no, for happiness! She was a woman now!

"Shall I get you a cup of tea," Eddy asked.

"You are sweet, but no, thanks. Please, come over to me and hold me, if you want. It's still early, so we have a lot of time before the children come."

Eddy came over to her side and took her in his arms. "Oh, Clara, darling," he sighed, kissing her wrinkled cheeks.

"Such a good man," Clara thought. "Such a wonderful husband." He had nearly died for her and their first baby ...

Agnes was born in November 1944, just before the winter. The harsh winter of '44-'45, the winter of the most awful famine in the history of Holland, the "Hunger Winter."

Realising that they were losing the war, the Germans had shamelessly plundered and looted the country. Nothing was left. No food, no livestock, no coal, no cooking gas, no electricity, no petrol, no means of transportation. Nothing.

The only thing the Dutch people could get to eat were a few horrible tasting tulip bulbs and, if they were lucky, a piece of a sugar beet, not enough to survive.

Eddy and Clara had seen people fall down and die on the streets! How would they, themselves and the baby, survive?

Clara had stayed in bed with the baby for whole days, to keep warm and lose less energy.

And Eddy had taken his bicycle (with wooden tires!) and ridden hundred kilometres and more, day after day, through bitter cold weather, on search for food in the rural parts of the country, where some farmers had succeeded in rescuing something from transportation to Germany.

He had visited farm after farm, begging for food for his wife and little daughter, trading everything they had, money, jewellery, linen tablecloths, a Persian rug, a fur coat, for a little bit of food: two pounds of rye flour, a piece of lard, some potatoes.

Every time he came home he was exhausted. From the food he brought home he took almost nothing for himself, saying that he had already eaten on his way home, a slice of bread with lard a farmer had given him, of a few carrots, which mostly was not true.

He had been sacrificing himself. Clara saw that very clear now.

On the way back from his last "hunger tour" he had fallen twice from his bicycle and, finally back at home, he had collapsed on the kitchen floor, unable to get up. His legs were swollen with oedema from malnutrition. Clara had to lift him and put him in bed, on the brink of death.

The Swedish had saved his life. Neutral during the war, but realising that almost a whole population was about to die, they had asked and got permission from the Germans to organise food droppings.

Swedish white bread ... Clara remembered very well. Like manna from Heaven! And just in time. If not, Eddy would have succumbed within a week.

Such a sweet man, such a nice husband!

"Sixty years, and what a bliss," Eddy thought. He was 89 now and Clara 88. Six children his wife had brought into the world, all well-to-do good citizens. Agnes a lawyer, Tom an internist, Felix a university professor in Dutch language, Louise a paediatrician, Carla a fashion designer and Peter a public prosecutor. Eighteen grandchildren they now, and seven great-grandchildren, the eighth on the way!

Eddy looked at the woman in his arms. From the structures of her facial bones you could still see that she had been very beautiful once. Now her face was wrinkled, yes, but what a wonderful sweet face it still was. He loved those wrinkles.

Clara looked at him and touched his cheek. "Shall we snuggle, love?" she asked.

Snuggling. That was their way of making love. He couldn't get an erection that lasted long enough and her vagina had dried up, so that real sex had got more and more cumbersome. Trying to reach an orgasm had become such a tiresome affair, that it was not funny any more. Therefore they had invented snuggling. They undressed and cuddled. Sometimes for hours, enjoying each other's naked bodies, just loving, caressing and kissing. So gratifying!!!

"Good idea, darling," Eddy answered enthusiastic, whereupon they hastily undressed and embraced again.

"Mmm," they both did. It felt good, so good.

It didn't matter to Eddy that his wife's empty breasts, stomach and buttocks sagged and that her body was all wrinkles. "I'm just an old bag of bones," she used to say. Oh no, it did not matter at all. Her skin was still so soft and nice to touch. He stroked her back and pressed her body against his. "My princess," he whispered. "My everything," she answered, "I cannot say how much I love you."

"We have had and still have a wonderful marriage," he said. "And," he chuckled, "we had a lot of fun together."

She knew what he meant, but to tease him she asked: "Such as ...?"

"Our sex life," he said. "Wow, you were a wild one!"

"Me, a wild one? I don't understand what you mean. I've always been very shy."

"Shy, you? Oh, my God! When I close my eyes I still see it before me, you straddling me, riding me like an amazon, with flaring hairs and bouncing boobs."

"And you were my untamed stallion," she said laughing.

It had always been their favourite position. For both of them it had been the most exiting way to come. Talking about it brought back all those sweet memories. They sighed, thinking back at those delicious passionate moments of lovemaking.

Inadvertently she reached out for his penis, the organ that had caused her so much pleasure and, also unintentionally, he put a hand between her thighs.

She got a tingling feeling between her legs and he felt his member stir.

"Oh, my God," she thought, "that's not possible." How long ago was it that she had been aroused and got an orgasm? Four years, five years, six? Impossible! But the feeling got stronger and stronger ...

Eddy thought likewise. When had he had his last erection? Five years ago, more? What was happening? Getting hard again? No way! But steadily his member grew and grew ...

"Oh Eddy," she said, feeling his hardness.

"Oh my," he said, "I think you are getting wet, Clara dear."

Tears got in their eyes. Would it be possible, on their 60th anniversary? They trembled with anticipation and got more and more agitated.

"Come, darling, I think I'm ready for you," she said.

"Oh, my love," he stammered when he entered her, "oh my love, oh, my darling."

"Oh, Eddy," she whispered, "how wonderful."

"Happy Anniversary, Clara," he said, smiling.

"Likewise, Eddy darling," she answered, giggling.

Clinging to each other they moved, first slowly and careful, then, gradually, faster and more passionate, she moaning and he almost howling. They felt their desire and their pleasure rise and rise to unknown heights. Never in their whole life they had felt so excited, so ecstatic.

Then came their climax. They both cried out, gasping, shuddering. Oh, my God! They felt as if they were fainting. Their hearts fluttered ...

Thousand stars exploded. Hand in hand they seemed to fly though a tunnel towards a light of unspeakable beauty ...

* * *

Two hours later Agnes found them, their bodies still in each others arms, their dead eyes staring into eternity, on their faces a smile full of endless happiness.