30 Years Ago Today........

Kathy and I said "I do." Through better and worse, rich and poor, in sickness and in health, we have been together. I love her as much now as I did March 10, 1979.

What follows is a classic post from a year ago. As my long time readers know, my brother Richard passed away last year on March 4. He had spent the last 20 years of his life in a wheelchair and the last 8 living in nursing homes. Kathy had become Ricky's guardian angel after my dad passed away and my mother's health had started deteriorating. On April 4, 2004, Kathy went to the nursing home where Ricky had resided at 5:30am to tell him that our mother had passed away. Here's what I had wrote a year ago:

"Ricky liked her first and foremost, because she was my wife. Kathy would take time to listen to what Ricky had to say when others were too busy for him.

Ricky knew that Kathy liked iced tea. One time when he knew that we were coming up for a holiday cookout, he made 27 gallons of sun tea. I guess he was concerned we would run out. Ricky always made Kathy feel welcome when we come up.

In Ricky's later years, Kathy would look out for Ricky's needs and sometimes go to the nursing home and take him to Wal-Mart for whatever he would want or need. There were times after we were legal guardians that one of us would have to go to an appointment for him or on occasion, go to the emergency room to meet the ambulance. One time Kathy got to the hospital, back to Ricky's room and he told the nurse "This is my sister in law, Kathy. She's 46."

Kathy arranged the transfer of Ricky from one nursing home to another when I moved my mother closer to us so we could attend to her needs. She also pulled strings to get him into sheltered workshop. When Ricky was asked a question about himself that he could not answer, his response would always be, "Ask Kathy."

If Ricky would have heroes in the last few years of his life, Kathy would definitely be one of them."

Cliff Note:Thank you for putting up with me for 30 years. I love you Kathy.