Happy Valentine’s Day to my husband, George, the love of my life.  I had to wait 20 years for him.  In “Choosing Life” I tell the story of falling in love only to have my family drive us apart.  We went twenty years without seeing each other.  That was hard, because his sister, Pearl, and I were close friends before I met George, and we remained close friends after George and I broke up.  Then, twenty years later, Pearl invited me to their mom’s birthday party.  I was so nervous about seeing George again that I took 5 mg of Valium, even though I was afraid of taking such medication.  I was concerned that he would be angry that I was invited or that he would enter the room with a beautiful blonde on his arm.  He did arrive with a beautiful blonde on his arm, but it was his mother.  We knew as soon as we saw each other that we were still in love.

Shortly after we were married, I got George a personalized license plate: PULL.  It was his favorite word.  Because he is a dentist, someone thought it referred to pulling teeth.  When he asked George about it, George answered, “You mean an extraction?”  “Pull” does not refer to teeth.  It’s the word you use to release a target when you are shooting trap.  George and I traveled all over the west attending trap shoots.  I became a trap groupie.    I enjoyed watching him shoot.   Trap shooters love their shotguns and take excellent care of them.  There has never been a death from a gun at a trap shoot or at a practice.  Gun safety is part of the etiquette observed in the sport.

USA Olympic Team

George always says the right thing.  My family has caused so much trouble in my life.  After a week of watching me cry, I asked him if I was worth all the trouble.  George said, “What trouble?”  Recently, I revisited the grief of having my children choose their grandfather’s promise of an inheritance over their own mother.  It’s been over 20 years since I have had contact with them, and the pain never goes away completely.  I told Val how upset I was that “God let my father win,”  that my children were lost to me.  George said, “You can’t lose what was never yours.”  Perception shock.  I thought about that a long time and have come to agree that they were never my possessions.  Every human being chooses his own way.   And the joy I have in the love given to me by my precious husband makes all the disappointments life brings fade away.  His loves covers even that loss.