The Story Behind the Song

For our 43rd wedding anniversary, Bruce and I apparently had the same idea—and neither of us knew what the other was up to!

I was busy creating Plano Romance 1983, a song about our teenage romance, the early days of our courtship, and how a persistent boy with a terrible haircut eventually convinced me to marry him.

What I didn’t know was that Bruce had secretly commissioned a country song of his own, telling our love story from his perspective.

I can only guess where he got the idea. For his birthday in June, I’d created A Mom’s Memories, and I suspect that inspired him to do something similar for me. But he never let on that he had anything planned.

While I was looking back at our high school days and turning those memories into music, he was doing the very same thing. We were both preparing anniversary surprises, completely unaware that we were working on two versions of the same love story.

And that’s what makes A Kiss Through a Car Window so special to me.

His song begins with the young couple we once were, including that unforgettable first kiss through the window. But it doesn’t stop there. It carries our story through forty-three years of marriage, raising a family, weathering life’s challenges, sharing adventures, and still dreaming about what’s ahead.

My song was filled with the little details I remembered about falling in love with him. His was about the life that followed—and what all those years together have meant to him.

I think that’s what I love most about these two songs. We shared the same experiences, but we each carried our own memories of them. And after all these years, we both chose music as a way to say what was in our hearts.

I couldn’t have asked for a more meaningful anniversary gift.

After forty-five years of dating and marriage, that boy who once promised he’d marry me is still finding ways to surprise me.