Happy Anniversary

This week marked Trish and my 20th Anniversary. On our anniversary Wednesday, I attended Mass at our church, which of course was said in memory of Trish. On the way to my car after Mass, an old friend of ours from St. Bart's yelled to me. He's in charge of the memorial pavers at St. Max. He wanted to let me know that the paver for Trish had just come in and it should be laid in the ground by the 17th of the month. So my memorial brick buying marathon is nearly complete. On the way to work I stopped by the cemetary and brought Trish 20 roses.

The week ended with Johns Hopkins giving me the contact info for Trish's Donor, so now that cycle is nearly complete too. I sent Trish's fireman an email this morning and hope to hear from him soon.

I may set up a forwarding service so that so many of you who ask me about him, could write with your appreciation and a "Trish story" or two, so that he knows just how much we appreciate him.

All in all, it wasn't as bad an anniversary week as it might have been, I think it went pretty good and Andy gets home tonight from his first semester at UF. So that will bring more challenges, fun and stuff to the next week before he heads back.

I'd now like to close by sharing some words, that aren't all mine, but they belong to a dear friend. I was happy to exchange some email this week with Annie who's husband also recently passed away from Leukemia. We were each other's cheerleaders as we whisked our spouses to appointments in the halls of Hopkins the last two years. We probably understand each other's happiness and pain better than most folks and our spouses were among the best adjusted to meet their diseases challenges and always kept a positive outlook. I'd like to share some of the words we exchanged this week. I hope that it can help you refocus and make your life better:

....I see so many people who don't get the "two become one" of the wedding ceremony. I know for Trish and I we couldn't imagine existing apart, we were one. It was so great to see you and Joe embrace that as well. People who simply get married, just don't get it and that is so sad for them......


....Look at all the things we've learned about life and people, all the good folks we've come to know, because our spouses had leukemia. I'm not cheering about that, but our lives are richer for it. We both learned something from Joe and Trish too. Didn't they set the bar really high? Didn't they show us so much courage, and what real love is--not the teenage, sex-crazed, reality TV version--but the sacrificial, sustaining, very deep version that maybe even approximates what God's love is all about. The physical aspects were a part of it, but it was integrated into the fiber of the WHOLE. Even Jesus spoke of himself as a bridegroom and his church as the bride--that's pretty heavy stuff--shows you how highly he held marriage......