tl;dr: After a long time, a lot of struggle, a lot of heartache - we're making it. Nothing is perfect, but right now it's pretty damn good and I'm glad every day we're together.

The Longer Version

My wife and I were married 2 months ago. We've been been friends and confidants for years and shared experiences that might have broken people. I all but died and came back, she endured years of abuse. During that time she would call just to chat while she raised her children, asked me about work and advice, just shared ideas. It didn't matter where I was or what I was doing - when she'd call from 50 or 5000 miles away it was always a joy to hear her. I was proud of how well she had done, how she fought for what was hers and built a home for her and her children.

A year and a half ago she called me for a favor to help her and her children get home. And when I stepped out of the airport to help drive her cross country back to her home, we were both hit with just how natural it was that we were together.

She invited me to visit her home after that, and the stays became more frequent and more often. I cleaned her garage and she showed me how she makes her marinara. We made food together, found common books together. We took on hardships between weather and family and everything in between.

When I asked her to marry me, we both felt "Why wait?" Maybe it was something we should have done ages ago. Maybe we both had to go separate paths before we wound up together. But we weren't going to learn anything new about each other. Every secret was out, every issue was out in the open, and all there was left was to decide to split again or to tell the world "No - we belong together."

What would waiting do at that point? Would another year "prove" that we should be together? "Just in case?" We'd already been through more together than some people who have been married 20 years struggle through, when everyone else left and it was an empty house and everyone abandoned us - we were still there together, and we got through it, and we thrived.

We have been married two months. And it's still a struggle between family and just the weight of the world. Sometimes I fall and sometimes I'm the one that holds her up.

But I wouldn't let her go for anything. She's my home, whether she's roasting me or dancing with me. Whether we're debating 9-11 conspiracies (jet fuel can't melt steel beams but they can weaken them....) or watching Star Trek together before bed and letting her gush about how hot Uhura is and how she wants a dress like hers to wear.

I won't say "age gap relationships" are universally happy or joyful or a trauma. All I can say is our relationship is the best thing in my entire life whether she's 18 or 30 or 100. I want to stay by her side until I'm too old to go on, then see her again when we're both reborn as cats, then again when we take our last existence as trees growing entwined around each other.