He still remembers seeing her for the first time like it was yesterday. She grabbed his attention from across a crowded college classroom.

He can still feel the emotion, the excitement, the anticipation, even the fear of the first time he asked her out, the first time he held her hand, the first time he held her close.

When he took her to the park on Puget Sound to ask her to marry him, he was shaking so badly, he could hardly get the words out. When he saw her on that wedding day the following June, he felt so unbelievably lucky, and again, his emotions made it so difficult to speak.

Now it is 20 years later, and he remembers the good times and the not so good, and he still feels so unbelievably fortunate.

He also remembers in the beginning of the marriage that there were times he would look at her and he would see someone he did not truly know and a little doubt would creep in. But he knew where that doubt came from, so he would dismiss it because he knew it would fade through time.

Those feelings and doubts are long gone now. But it took 20 years for him to realize that it wasn't through a wedding that the two become one, but through a marriage. Through a lifetime of sharing love and laughter, joy and excitement. Through enduring hardship, illness and pain together. Through children, job changes and cross-country moves and numerous other life-altering events experienced together.

He also realized that if he were ever to lose her, he knew that he would again see someone he did now know. Except this time, it would be when he looked in the mirror because he would no longer be complete.