It is done.
I have returned to my North Texas home after being showered with love, affection and sympathy aimed at my beloved bride, Kathy Anne, who we memorialized over the weekend among our church family members in Amarillo, Texas.
We called it a “celebration of life.” It lived up to its billing. Our friend, the Rev. Murray Gossett, sprinkled his remarks about Kathy Anne with plenty of humor, along with some fond remembrances he had of knowing her for more than two decades.
We laughed and we cried.
Now comes a more arduous journey through my grief at this terrible loss. I now must navigate my way through the rest of my own life. There won’t always be a large crowd of friends around. There will be moments when I am lonesome.
Yes, I will have my immediate family upon whom I can lean. Those who don’t live in North Texas are just a phone call away. However, only I can chart the path I intend to take the rest of the way.
However, for this moment, I am feeling a sense of relief that we have completed this joyful task of remembering the woman of my dreams, my partner who in January 1971 appeared before me like a vision at a college student union building.
We built a marvelous life together. We traveled to all but two of the 50 states of this country and a couple dozen nations around the world. We saw holy sites, historical sites, nature’s most splendid grandeur … and we did it while holding hands and proving daily that we truly were made for each other.
Those are what we celebrated this weekend. I am grateful for the memories I know will continue to remind me of Kathy Anne.