Sigh...Laugh...Memories

Hello Friends,

You may have already "done the math" but today I observed my 60th birthday. Yeah, the first Daniel child born in a hospital! Of course that hospital was about the size of a large clapperboard home...but it was a hospital. I remember it well, even though I was young ... not!

But, today is also the 40th anniversary of our first date. I won't repeat the details (you can find those on the earlier June 19, 2010, post). As you can imagine, the short leap from the first Thanksgiving and Christmas without Trudy to today seems at times too much for me to assimilate. Still, at this point, I am compelled to ponder deeply every memory of our life together. And our life together...as a couple, began 40 years ago tonight. There have been so many remarkable segments to this love story, but I am smitten by the thought that the first date was to my "surprise" birthday party! It was a very simple birthday party...and yet every element was charged with a sense of destiny. The girl accompanying me was the one! And in a mere 11 months and three days we would be married. Thank you, Arthur and Effie Benoit, for your blessings and your ongoing support. Why, even tonight when I returned home from a rare Monday night church service, I had a very welcome voice mail birthday greeting from my mother-in-law. And thanks to my Mom and Dad, for their warm support of my "high-speed" courtship of and marriage to Trudy.

For the past week, I've been spending time with my siblings. We all rendezvoused in Phoenix, at our brother Jim's house. Seated, L to R, is my sister Marcia, Paul's wife Anna, and our oldest brother's wife Karen. Standing is Paul, Jim's wife Sue, Robert, and Jim. Our big brother, Jack, passed away with Kidney cancer on September 21, 2009. With all that history together in one room, you would correctly guess that family stories were remembered with rich tones of hearty laughter and melancholy moments of heavy sadness. Out time together flew...it stood still...but it never seemed quite enough. The walk down memory lane was not interrupted even with the halting, and difficult to speak memories from Karen and Robert. In fact, it was one of the safest and most affirming environments for such openness one could experience.
I don't think I took it for granted, but Trudy accepted my family as it were her own family...and reciprocally...she was fully accepted as part of the extended Daniel clan. Thanks big brothers, sisters-in-law, and little sister...y'all are awesome.

Well, just as our first date had to come to an end, so must I bring this blog to a conclusion. So, goodnight family and friends...I shall pillow my head and perhaps my dreams will grace me with visions of . . .

Our Love Story,
Blessings, Robert