Today is the 20th anniversary of the Loma Prieta Earthquake that decimated the South Bay area, including downtown Santa Cruz, where we now live. When most people think  of the quake they don’t realize that the epicenter was in Santa Cruz and not in San Francisco, where most of the media attention was drawn. I read the coverage in the Santa Cruz Sentinel this morning and it was very moving. Reading stories about people who died, people who risked their own lives saving others and the general sense of the community rallying around each other, brought tears to my eyes.

We were not living in Santa Cruz then. Jared, my ex and I had just moved into our apartment in Bayonne, NJ. Our wedding was in a week and a half. We would have been married 20 years this month. Oddly, I always associate the Loma Prieta Earthquake with the year we got married. We had just finished unpacking some boxes when we sat down to a late dinner to watch the San Francisco Giants in the World Series. And then  there was a commotion. The camera started shaking and people were screaming and then the TV screen went black. Local newscasters came on to say that there had been an earthquake.

We had no idea that in three years we would move to the very town that was the epicenter of the quake.  Although we never experienced the quake first hand, we heard lots of stories. Some of which were actually kind of funny, in an ironic sort of way. One friend of mine, a videographer for a local company, had just organized and categorized his collection of videos. It had taken him weeks to complete the task. He had just finished and proudly announced his accomplishment to his co-workers when the walls started shaking and everything came crashing down, videos strewn all over the room. Now that’s funny. And then there were the fateful stories of chance and good fortune.  Like the friend who told me she left work early that day and had she not, she most likely would have been killed because the desk where she sat had been crushed by a chandelier from the ceiling above.

Everyone has a story. Mine is that I was watching the Giant’s game on TV in New Jersey with my then fiance.  Which brings me to the point I am leading up to here which is — this month marks the 20th anniversary of The Loma Prieta quake. It also means that if Jared and I were still married we would be celebrating our 20th anniversary. It would have been a milestone for sure and I wonder how many milestones Paul and I will reach. We’ll probably make it to 20 years together barring any unforseen tragedy or illness. We’re young enough. But will we make it 30? 40? And unless we live to our 90′s, we will not see our golden anniversary, like my parents who were married 53 years. That’s a hard point for me to reconcile sometimes. Paul and I don’t have much of a past together, but we hope for a long future together. But knowing what we both know about the twists and turns life can take us, nothing is certain or forever. Like the stories I read in the paper this morning from people who recalled this day 20 years ago when they were sitting in a coffee shop and 15 seconds later, it was gone. A pile of rubble. Many things in life are temporary, so live in the moment and enjoy life while you can.