Each year on the anniversary of my husband's death, I pause and contemplate our life together, from meeting at college to forging a partnership through marriage and finally to our last days together. When I sit down to blog about it each year, I've looked for photos that showed the various aspects of the person who loved me, supported me and did good out in the world. Often I've shared the motorcycle part since that was such a big part of what might be termed the second half of our life together, and this year I got out an old photo album to hunt down pictures from a 1998 motorcycle vacation that included visiting Copper Falls State Park in Wisconsin, looking for waterfall pictures which is what you see above.
Unexpectedly as I flipped through pages, I ran across these two photos of us from 1997 when we flew back to Olympia, WA for a friend's wedding. It was held at an old house with wrap-around porches sporting fantastic views, and I remember how much we enjoyed just sitting out there with no cares. My initial reaction upon seeing his smiling face in this photo was, well hello handsome - you clean up well! Then noted what I'd written at the top of the page: "Here's to you - you handsome devil!" Ah yes, I always loved it when he dressed up, always looking so smart.
Which prompted me to hunt down another pic I took of him "all suited up". Of course, the current furry child had to be included. This was in the early 80's and after realizing he had to give up teaching at least for awhile, he was putting out resumes and preparing for interviews. He really didn't have a suitable suit so I sent him off to pick something out. He came back with a beautiful 3-piece suit and what else he needed to go with it. Sigh . . . I loved it every time there was an event when I could accompany him wearing that suit.
So that's my story for this year. I'll be raising a glass of something later today saying, "Here's to you - you handsome devil! Thanks for every memory."