Almost Thirteen
© Lannie Dietle 2025
I started datin' my second wife
When she was twelve years old.
Don't ya jump to no conclusions,
or look down yer nose-n scold.
It's not so bad as you might think,
It's not really what it seems.
After all that little darlin' a mine,
She was almost age thirteen.
She's the girl God made for me,
And it's worth puttin' in a song.
We were made for each other,
And I wish I'd known it all along.
Everyone could clearly see
We had fallen hard in love.
We were coo-in to each other
Just like a pair of turtle doves.
When she and I got hitched
I had just turned forty-seven.
She was as cute as a button,
It was a match made in heaven.
She's the girl God made for me,
And it's worth puttin' in a song.
We were made for each other,
And, I wish I'd known it all along.
After she turned fourteen
I gave her a diamond ring.
Our hearts were full of love,
And she was my everything.
That ring was my pledge that
We'd be marryin' someday.
We just didn't have any idea'r
That the weddin' was far away.
She's the girl God made for me,
And it's worth puttin' in a song.
We were made for each other,
And I wish I'd known it all along.
One day we had a terrible fight,
And our plans, they went awry.
It was over some stupid little thing,
But we broke up and said goodbye.
Even though we had that fight,
With time, our love grew greater,
and we made up and got married
Just thirty short years later.
She was forty-four by then,
And I was forty-seven.
We got married at the courthouse,
A match made in heaven.
That weddin' was many years ago,
and we're still a goin' strong.
She's the girl God made for me,
And I wish I'd known it all along.
That weddin' was many years ago,
and we're still a goin' strong.
She's the girl God made for me,
And I wish I'd known it all along.
The song grew out of a moment when I tried to explain to a new acquaintance just how far back Cheryl and I go. Without thinking, I blurted out that, "I started dating my second wife when she was just twelve." The statement was absolutely true, but it sounded terrible and earned a disgusted look. He didn't know Cheryl was my second wife, nor that we started dating when we were both kids. For all he knew, I had taken a very young teenage wife sometime between my first wife and my then-62-year-old wife Cheryl. I salvaged the moment by explaining the real story — that Cheryl and I were childhood sweethearts who eventually found our way back to each other as adults.
When I first played the song for Cheryl, she listened with growing concern and finally declared that the lyrics had better make it clear she was forty-four when we got married. I assured her they did!
L. Dietle
