Nearly 70 yrs old and voted for 1st time today [View all]

[kpete]

FRI OCT 19, 2012 AT 09:00 AM PDT
Nearly 70 yrs old and voted for 1st time today
by Olkate

I've never written a diary before, but I wanted to share my pride in my husband and what I hope his vote may represent. My husband of nearly 25 years voted for the first time today. He's on his way right now to drop off our ballots. My husband who has expressed nothing but disdain for politics in all the years we have been together. For my husband, family, work, friends and baseball...those were his priorities.

My husband started working at 15 in the seafood business here in Washington state. His first job was on the production line. Even when he had a management position, he still worked on his feet. Sometimes in Alaska he would work for 18-20 hours, catch 2-3 hours of sleep and be back into the plant to make sure things were set up for the next day. It's hard enough to work on your feet in any job. But add cold, wet rooms and concrete floors...it takes a toll.

So at 63 he took early retirement. He struggled with this decision and we discussed the financial ramifications and the personal ramifications for over a year. I'm quite a bit younger than my husband and we're not financially in a position for me to retire. But I knew and he knew he could not physically endure the pain anymore. He needed hip and knee replacement surgery. Had to have them. He worked for a company that would not allow him to take the time off to recover and know that his job would still be there when he was capable to go back to work. They had to offer him a job...just not his old job. So he retired and had his surgeries and is not in pain anymore. I am so grateful he no longer has to endure such pain. And I'm so grateful for the extra time we've been able to share because he is retired.

So now it's 6 years later and my husband asked how hard is it to register to vote? I hid my surprise (I was flabbergasted) and told him it was easy we could do it online. So he asked me to help him register. It was amazingly quick...took less than 5 minutes...and badda bing, my 69 year old spouse was registered to vote for the first time in his life.


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the rest:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/19/1146954/-Nearly-70-yrs-old-and-voted-for-1st-time-today