Skip to main content

Still Those Wonderful…


 

Still Those Wonderful…

When you meet your soulmate, you share thoughts of a euphoric future. Now, you may not be in total agreement as to where your and their future are to be. However, if you truly are in love, it’ll all work out. That is just how life goes in love.

 Norman and my first dream was: “…we’re going to work, live, and raise our children up north. They’ll be great skiers and hikers.” Vermont was preferred, New Hampshire our second choice.  We both enjoyed the wilderness. Although me more than him. Norm was more of the social otter type. Me, the lone wolf that could join a pack. Yet, likes to hunt alone most the time.  I like the ground, the dirt. Norm, he liked shaking hands with the blue fish and the tuna. He loved ‘exploring’ on many levels and was fascinated by forests.

 We had nicknames for each other. His fraternity brothers and college friends would ask, “How did the Hippie marry the Marine?” Some nicknames, many times were created after the first decade of our marriage. He was the “BMOC” (Big Man On Campus). I was “The Good Little German” (the Experiment).  Not many knew all that about us. It’s not that Norm didn’t like experiments, it was that he was hesitant on experiments. Whereas I run full-force, head first into them. To me, it was “Oh Wow! What if…” To him, “I’m not so sure…”

 Lines from Norm to me would be something like: “Jody, you have your own solar system.” I’d nod in agreement. Because what we knew, and I sometimes kidded him on was that he was ‘Normal Norman’. There were many contrasts to our relationship. He the crab, me the scorpion. As you may or may not know the crab analyzes side to side. Too, they are faster in sideways movement. Scorpions move in the complete opposite direction, apparently. And they can climb upside down. Crabs are more water. Scorpions suggestively more arid.

 Years ago, I introduced Norman to the desert as well to California. I begged him, “I want you to experience this”. For years, he seemed none too thrilled to go out west, aside from skiing perhaps in Wyoming and Utah. Then, about fifteen years ago, as his analysis was viewing my thoughts with his. He blurted out, “You know, we could get an RV. Have a hook up in Vermont. Buy a mobile home out in Death Valley. What do you think?”  I nodded, “Now that sounds good.”  Although I was not and am not the ‘nomad’ type. He loved exploring. Everything to me is an experiment. So, I’d be game.  There is so much more to explore in this country.

 So, as I drank my morning coffee and reminisced on such thoughts today. At times, giggling to myself. Knowing full well, we did it correctly. However, that future will be solo. I’ll be riding the wave alone. Having an empty nest in barely a few years.  Yet part of what’s remained are still those wonderful dreams.---Jody-Lynn Reicher

Comments

  1. A beautiful tribute. Thanks for sharing these memories

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Completion of Humanness

Completion of Humanness As we arrive to the completion of the first year without Norman, I had decided long before he'd passed that I would continue to do things certain things he liked yet could no longer do. I decided I would not take a day off of fitness.  I would run at least for 500 days in a row. I began that in early 2020.  I'd not be concerned with the distance I'd run. It was the very thing I convinced Norman and the thing that mattered to him, from the very first discussion we had August 11th, 1981, was fitness. I loved that he was a College Boy. He loved that I was a Marine. We tickled each other's soul with such admirations. Later fitness continued as an old discussion from 1994 ...getting outside and to run no matter what. I would say to him, "Run 200 meters, then 400 meters. If it doesn't feel good, stop. Turn around and walk back home and know you did your best. That is all you can ask of yourself." I said this,  knowing he would get dow

In My World

As I finish putting away the week's groceries, I contemplate other's lives. Aside from my two daughters,  I consider what may be other's lives.  How they have conducted their lives over the past two years.  This is a thought not unusual for me to have. Yet, it occurs more often than not. Especially  now, as the population is probably feeling ever more irked. Regarding perhaps. their illusion of any lack of their freedom. But isn't that what life is about? The illusion of who we are. What we are about. Where we stand on the planet. Who we love. And who loves us. Our significance. Couldn't we imagine if this were all just an illusion? Sounds like a "Twighlight Zone" episode, perhaps. My aim here, are the thoughts of reckoning. I'll explain why I'm claiming such a thing. For about twenty-eight years of a career in dealing with injured athletes,  pain patients, chronically ill and the terminally ill. I found that there were many people who lied to

It's About the Soul And...

  ...perhaps the soles of our shoes. My father-in-law used to say the feet are what soldiers depend on, as we do food. He said that to me in 1985 as I stood in his home office.  My husband, Norman was a shoe guy. And it was all about the soles on the shoes.  For me, the way I have stayed on my feet was soul deep. Sometimes praying every step of the way, to not fall over out of exhaustion. The approximately 170,000 miles of running, many of which Norman had witnessed or known of. He wondered how I stayed standing working on my feet all day. Only to come home, and go for a second run at midnight at times.  Often Norman would give me a lecture on good shoe care. It was about the soles of the shoes. He'd point out stitching on a shoe that was done wrong. Therefore commenting, "...giving a shoe less time of wear on this earth."  He'd remark quite often. "You have to buy good quality shoes." I have to say, there was absolutely something comedic about his shoe obse