Family Matters: Bill's 77th Birthday!

Monday, May 6, 2013

Bill's 77th Birthday!

"Congratulations on making it to a day neither one of us thought you would live to see."
My husband's cardiologist when Bill turned 70.

Anyone that knows Bill knows that he has definitely beat the odds. He had his first heart attack when he was 42. He's had several since resulting in two triple-bypass surgeries and one double stent insertion. Among family and friends, we often joke about Bill "threatening" to be dead and never following through. He just keeps on rollin' . . .

I met Bill 32 years ago this month when I was a divorced, single parent of a not-quite-three year old daughter. The fact that we've been married for 26 years was definitely NOT in the cards. Who knows how these things happen.

We've had a wonderful life together. We've had the opportunity to camp our way from coast to coast of this beautiful country and Canada and travel overseas several times to Europe and once to Israel. We are very compatible travelers and wish we could do more. We spent 30 years sailing on weekends and had a wonderful group of friends who shared this passion with us. In recent years, we've replaced that hobby with cycling along the Little Miami Bike Trail. Bill has logged almost 6000 miles on his "comfort" bike.

Bill is supported by several men friends including the members of C.A.K.E.S. (Coffee and Kibitzing Every Sunday) and his "Monday Lunch Group." I've never encountered such a caring group of men.

I have to admit that I'm in an unusually reflective mood as we reach this milestone. There are so many things I could discuss -- Bill's daughter in Tennessee, Liz, Roland and the two wonderful grandsons we have, the three dogs we've shared (Scruffy, Anchor and Zippy), but something else is on my mind this year.

A couple of weeks ago, my daughter told me that her son, Ian, was asked in Sunday School to draw a picture of someone he loved. He explained to his parents that despite loving them, he had chosen to draw a picture of Grandpa Bill because Grandpa Bill had given him some yellow trucks. These trucks were vintage die cast trucks, probably from the 50s. Ian loves his trucks -- and needless to say, Grandpa Bill loved hearing the story. So it made me think of one of my favorite pictures.