The first memory I have of the “new man” in mom’s life was going to some public tennis courts; we all messed around with tennis balls on the second court, while you two had your “date”. How do I know it was a date? You both walked up to the net and KISSED over it! GROSS!!!! I was horrified! Well New Man, thanks for staying around and becoming family in the deepest sense of the word.

I remember a moment when you brought this new gadget home and brought it upstairs (Longfellow house). You plugged it into our wee little VHF/UHF (what does that even mean???) TV and turned it on. It was a new game called Pong. It appeared on the screen and I was absolutely stunned and mesmerized. To this day I still get a thrill when I see a basic pong style game. I also remember when you brought home an oscilloscope and set it up in your office. What an incredible machine. Your love of gadgets often gave us glimpses into a future of technology that we couldn’t have imagined. And now look…over 50 years later we are all still here, still amazed by new technologies popping up almost daily.

Your office is also where you’d sit to write your sermons for the upcoming Sunday. I remember getting up and sneaking downstairs to spy on you. I was dying to see the inspiration in action. I wholly expected to see a special light shining down upon you. Or maybe a ghosty Jesus bending your ear. There was nothing! Just you, writing! That one stumped me for a long time. I never learned where your inspiration came from, but your sermons were the most down-to-earth and heartfelt that I ever heard. Your sermons weren’t good enough to make me like church, but they sure were good enough to help push me down the seeker’s path. If not for you I would probably have become simply cynical, rather than interested.

These are just little tidbits that have stuck with me for oh-so-many years now. But it is the tidbits that add up to long lives well lived. Thank you for being consistently there, being the best you could be, and sharing your life with us all, not just that cute gal that you kissed over the net. Who knew that you would be far more of a “dad", and a much much larger part of my life than my dad could ever manage to be.

Love,

Jocelyn