I thank you for my friends And most specially, For my best friend. Thirty seven years ago, When Lily and I were wed, I did not know who she was. Nor she me. Nor much about ourselves. Nor anything about marriage at all. The learning was often to be painful, Although without it There would have been nothing. Somewhow we made it through, And it would be wrong not to give ourselves Any credit. But tell me this: Utterly innocent back then, How did I know In my blind ignorance That Lily- more different Than I could imagine- Was right for me? I cannot explain it Unless you were invisibly by my side. Guiding me while I ,like Jacob, was unaware. And I, like Jacob, must now also exclaim: "Surely God was in this place, and I, I did not know it."