My life without my wife, I would have been buried years ago. As a very young soldier that came home from Vietnam mentally alone in my mind, and no one even knew. I can understand how some men coming back from combat could choose to kill themselves, and it is a lonely place where with any weakness, the option is always there. I was through with the army and only wanted to be gone, so I had many days of absence without leave. When I met my future wife, I again had a purpose and went and finished my last six months of service. Many people would have considered my military absences foolish, but I realized it most likely saved my life; I needed time with ordinary people and worth.

The letter isn’t about me,it is about her. I guess many times in her life she would have wished she had chosen another path, another mate, someone closer to her style of living, but she didin’t. She was always wanting a little house with a white picket fence and husband that went to work and brought her his paychecks on friday and she paid the bills and raised the kids. What she got was a man that believed he would die any day and lived at 100 miles and hour. My first daughter made me realize that I helped make something from the two of us that was precious and great, it changed me mentally.

How do you thank a woman helped you raise three different sets of kids from babies, to grown, in one lifetime? Our last daughter came 18 years ago and changed our lives, as did the others. Throughout our lifetime, she gained the ability to be independent and follow her dreams and ideas. The stories I write are only a few that she could correctly attest to my adventures and misadventures. How do you not stay loyal to a woman that has seen you go broke and run for US Senate with money that we had put aside for retirement? There are many women in the world, but only a few that would stay with a man that has few boundaries or fears; God Bless her on our 53rd “CHRISTMAS” I will love her till the day I die,