Do you remember your anniversary? Caught you off guard, didn’t I? You’re racking your memory for a particular date. Relax. Anniversaries come in many forms: marriage, graduations, first dates, even work.

As my husband, Terry, was finishing harvesting last fall on the field immediately north of our house, he received a radio call from Kayle, our employee.

“Hey, Terry, I hope someday I can walk out of my house, climb up in my combine and pick corn like you are today in that field,” Kayle said.

Terry answered, “It took a lot to get here today, Kayle. Lots of work, prayer and dedication. This is my 40th year farming since I finished at Purdue and returned home to farm. Dad and I bought this field during my senior year at Purdue, and I hoped I would ultimately own the farm where Susan and I live.”

Anniversaries often connote celebration, hopes, dreams and recognition. They can also represent monumental events and prompt gratefulness, tenacity, reflection, and blood, sweat and tears.

How did Terry accomplish the 40-years-farming milestone? “I’m doing what God wants me to do and what I’ve always wanted to do,” he says.

His favorite way to celebrate such an event is like any other day: Come in for the night, sit on the couch, put his feet on the ottoman, man the remote and promptly fall asleep — most likely with visions of even better corn harvested with a shiny New Holland combine.

Happy 40th anniversary, Honeybear!