Two score and 14 years ago...

...this nation, and in particular one brave citizen, gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. When that baby girl turned 9 and transferred to the Wilson Elementary School in Adams Center, N.Y. -- because she was gifted and could not be contained by the standard curricula of the time -- she met the young boy who is typing this. They had a typical adolescent relationship to start with -- boys on this side, girls over there -- but it was apparent even then that the girl was special. She made a real effort to get to know the boys, learning the names of the Dallas Cowboys of the day (Roger Staubach! Ed "Too Tall" Jones! Even Everson Walls!) and cheered the boys on in their various playground pursuits. Time marched on, as time does, and in high school the boy and the much older woman continued to be smushed together by academics and music. Wherever he went, she was there. In the halcyon days of August 1990, the almost 19-year-old girl and the still very young, only 18.66-years-old boy, went off to their respective institutions of higher learning. At this point the pair could have easily drifted apart, but something -- an unwillingness to fully let go of home, perhaps? -- kept them in close contact. Enter the VAX, a primitive computer-to-computer communication system that allowed them to type diary entries to each other and share their new worlds, despite the distance between them. Soon enough it was home for the holidays, where the young man and the young woman noticed they were each pleasing to look at, and maybe they should try holding hands, and what are those -- lips??? 

Fast forward 35 years through London, Mainz, Germany, Salzburg, Austria, Kuwait City, five U.S. states, two kids, four homes and diverse career paths, and that young man and young woman are no longer so young, but they are together, just as they always were. 

I love you, Carey Ann Mathews Merrill. Here's to 54 more + forever.