We are Greg and Diane Porter. We met at a friend’s backyard cookout in 1989, got married in June 1991 and bought a little brick house in a small Ohio town in 1996. We still live in it. The kitchen floor still creaks in the same spot.
Greg spent his career as a civil engineer and retired in 2023. He fixes things, gets up before the sun, loves a quiet lake with a fishing pole and still needs a minute before he can talk about his feelings. Diane was an elementary school nurse for twenty six years and retired in 2024. She gardens, reads, talks to strangers in line at the store and has never met a road trip she did not like.
Why we started writing
We raised three kids, Ben, Katie and Josh. Now we have two wonderful in laws, five grandkids and a dog named Biscuit who thinks she runs the place. When Josh moved out in 2019, the house went quiet and we realized we had spent so long being Mom and Dad that we had to learn how to be just us again.
Our marriage has not been a straight line. There were lean years when the kids were small and money was tight. There was a long stretch in the early 2000s when we were more roommates than partners. Greg had a heart scare in 2021. Diane cared for her mother until she passed in 2022. Every one of those seasons taught us something, usually the hard way.
So we started writing it down. This site used to carry a simple line, spread uplifting and positive messages, and we decided to keep that spirit. These days our message is about the love that lasts, the real kind, with all the snoring and the stubbornness and the second chances.
What you will find here
- The Empty Nest. Rediscovering each other when the kids are gone.
- Keeping Romance Alive. Dates, letters and the small habits that keep things warm.
- Retiring Together. What happens when you are suddenly home together all day.
- Making It Work. Arguments, apologies and actually listening.
- Hard Seasons. Illness, grief and caregiving.
- Family Life Now. Grandkids, grown kids, in laws and the holidays.
We are not counselors or experts. We are two ordinary people who keep choosing each other. When a topic calls for a professional, a doctor, a counselor or a financial advisor, we will say so. Everything else is just what has worked for us, offered with love.
Thank you for being here. Pull up a chair.
Greg and Diane