Lynda - 1997

Today, December 7, 1997, marks what would have been our twenty-forth year together. I suppose it's only fitting to write about Sandy, on this our anniversary day, and do so with undeniable love in my heart. We always knew how special our love for one another was and this love continued to grow throughout our years together. In fact, we left little room for "improving" what we already had with one another, but still we continued to grow. You see, the beauty of a loving bond between two individuals never stops if the love you have is real. As I view it, one of the hallmarks of our relationship was "fun." We always had such fun together, 24 hours a day, non-stop. I could count the number of "fights" we had on one hand, and even those were resolved before we went to bed - always. Sandy got so mad at me one time, she threw a bag of potato chips at me! Now that hurt, since I LOVE potato chips! We laughed while cleaning them up. Another time we were having an argument while driving home from work one day and although I can't recall what it was about, Sandy was pretty hot. So, to ease the tension that was building, I decided to change the subject entirely and comment about how beautiful the fall leaves were on the trees lining the road we traveled leading to our home. Her immediate retort was "fu*k the leaves!" and with that, I just burst out laughing and she joined in -- end of fight! I guess you would need to know Sandy to appreciate how uncharacteristic that was for her to have said -- but her timing was always perfect.

Sandy loved to travel and would often "talk me into going places" and I will be forever grateful that she did. Her other love was golfing and we combined our love for golf with several trips. The most memorable golfing vacations were in Hawaii and Scotland, although we had a very interesting time in Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic. I won't discuss the helicopter ride in Kauai, but I'll bet the pilot still has Sandy's fingernail impressions in his thigh and I'm still recuperating from a crushed esophagus! We snow skied in our earlier years but mostly in areas on the East Coast and in Canada, but we became spoiled after skiing out in Vail Colorado and swore we would never ski in the East again! Sandy managed to get sun-poisoning on her face that trip and skied the remainder of our time out there with a bandana over her face! She had a great tan afterwards! In our youth, we used to go camping with friends, but the most memorable part of those trips was watching Sandy hunt for daddy-long-legged spiders, with flashlight in hand, while sitting around the campfire. We traveled on some mighty scary roads in Switzerland, Scotland, and the Pacific Coast in California to name a few, but the thing I remember most were Sandy's white knuckles grasping onto whatever she could grab! Our 3 1/2-week trip to Europe was simply incredible (including the driving and 1,600 miles later). Sandy loved Europe and had lived in Italy for three years when she was 9 years old. She traveled to Europe at least three times before we met in 1973. She finally dragged me over there in 1985, and I'll relish the memories of that trip forever. Sandy's outgoing and friendly personality would, at times, make me uncomfortable. Like the time we went to a restaurant in Garmish Germany and we were seated at a big table shared by others -- and they only spoke German! And we only spoke English! But that didn't stop Sandy from pulling out her English-German dictionary and making an earnest attempt to communicate with these foreigners! These people LOVED her, but I sat there mortified! Sandy was NEVER at a loss to say kind words to anyone or everyone. But that was who Sandy was and why so many people loved her, including me. She would go into a grocery store and I would wait in the car for her (hate shopping) and a few minutes later she would come out and tell me the life history of the person waiting in the checkout line with her! I was always in awe with her loving, caring, outgoing personality, and one of the reasons she was so easy to love. There was never any doubt, you never met a stranger when you were with Sandy. My parents loved Sandy like a daughter and treated her like one of their own. My brothers would play golf with us and we always bet (guys against gals), and we often won. Playing golf with Sandy was ALWAYS enjoyable for me, but then just being with her was a joy. We didn't need to be doing something to enjoy being with one another. Sandy disliked slapstick comedies and if she didn't find something funny, I would tell her she didn't have a "sense of humor." On the contrary, Sandy had an incredibly delightful sense of humor and was VERY FUNNY and we always joked around. I miss the laughter.

Sandy gave me so much of herself -- I can only hope I gave her as much in return. I will never understand why such a good, loving, caring, giving and kind person such as Sandy left this earthly existence at the young age of 50. She had so much life in her. I can only say she never deserved to die so young and especially from that hideous disease. Sandy will forever remain alive in my heart and mind, and I will look forward to once again being with my soulmate when it's my time to go. We shared a special kind of love, and that love will never die. She made my life rich. So as I sit here and reminisce over the years we shared together, I am forever grateful for having had Sandy in my life, but I will forever miss her with all my heart. I will always love you Sandy.