C is for Celebration(PKW)

If you are new to my blog PKW is Possible Kleenex Warning, just in case you're at work or something reading this!

So...

We have these amazing friends in Ohio. Their names are Jerry and Joanne. And I suppose I could have waited until "J" to tell this story but I want to tell you now, especially because we've just finished the Surprise Wedding saga.

These people are absolutely wonderful.

Hey wait a second, will you? My husband is just walking down the hall.

OK, I'm back. I just asked him to describe Jerry and Joanne because I know I am extremely biased and here's what he said, "warm, intelligent, funny, compassionate, friendly, just delightful, delightful people."

Joanne will tell you every silly thing she's every done...she is an open book to her loved ones and we all absolutely adore her and her hugs and kisses and very open affection.

Jerry is quieter and more reserved about personal things. He will talk to you about deep and esoteric subjects like astrophysics or why the allegorical meaning of Shakespeares sonnets should be... (well, OK, I don't know exactly what he says but he does say stuff exactly like this and you have to sit there trying to nod and look intelligent all the while thinking "why oh why didn't I pay attention in school in classes other than Chasing Boys 101?") But he doesn't talk about emotions or share his feelings.

Thinking about this right now, I don't think I have ever seen him hug or kiss or say "I love you" to his wonderful wife in public.

You can clearly see the affection between them, but she shows it often and with great abandon, and he does not.

But anyway.

Jerry has had cancer several times and has had a tough recovery...but he is a fighter. And a scholar. And a kind and wonderful man.

Before Christmas Jerry had a heart attack. He was on a ladder and fell to the floor. The ambulance could barely get up their snow-filled driveway to transport him to the hospital.

He survived. And is in the process of trying to recover.

January 18th is Jerry and Joanne's Anniversary.

Something they usually celebrate quietly and with no public displays of affection other then a loving glance toward one another.

This year was their 46th Anniversary.

Our lovely friend Joanne went to the read the morning paper that Monday morning and almost choked when she turn the page and found this... ...occupying an entire half-page in their local newspaper.

She was astonished.

She cried.

She laughed.

When she told me, I was astonished.

I cried.

I laughed.

And then I cried some more when she told me he explained it by saying, "I figured I better do this now...and not try and wait for our 50th."

What a Celebration of love.

The truest Celebration by putting aside his own feelings of humble privacy to shout from the very rooftops "I LOVE THIS WOMAN!"

And I am Celebrating again today how very fortunate I am to know them.