[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 9312]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                    WEDDING ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, this is not quite as important a subject to 
my listeners, perhaps, as the words I have just spoken, but it is an 
important subject to me, because next Monday, the Lord willing--in the 
Book of James, we are told always not to say, I'll do this or I will do 
that tomorrow; I'll go here or I'll go there tomorrow; always say, 
``the Lord willing'' --next Monday, the Lord willing, my wife and I 
will celebrate our 63rd wedding anniversary.
  I have to frankly say that what little I have amounted to, if it is 
anything much, I owe for the most part to her. She saw to it that I 
earned a law degree. She virtually put me through law school by her 
caring ways. She fulfilled the responsibilities at home, rearing our 
children while I was busy. She went to the store, she did the buying, 
she did the washing, she did the ironing, she pressed my clothes. She 
mopped the floors, she vacuumed the carpets, she did the work. I have 
never seen a person who was a harder worker than my wife and the woman 
who raised me, my old foster mother, my aunt.
  But Erma is the one to whom credit is due. She has set the kind of 
example for me over the years that I have not been able to emulate 
fully. This coming Monday, I am going to show her my appreciation by 
going back to the hills with her. On Monday, we will finish reading the 
King James version of the Holy Bible together. We are down to where we 
lack four chapters. We try to read the Bible every Sunday--not that I 
am somebody who is good; the Bible says that no man is good; not that I 
am somebody good --but she and I read that Bible every Sunday. Three or 
four months ago, I counted the number of chapters remaining, and it 
came out to where if I divided them in a way that we would read six 
chapters every Sunday, we could finish the Bible, the reading of the 
Holy Bible, from beginning to end, the old testament and the new, on 
next Monday, our wedding anniversary. We lack four chapters, and God 
willing, we will finish those four chapters next Monday.
  After that day, we will be on our way to our 64th wedding 
anniversary.

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