Our favorite photo.
In a few days, 2024 will fall into the rearview mirror, and I will be glad to see it pass. The reason is obvious. Earlier this year I lost Jacqueline—my amazing bride, my best friend and soulmate—to the demon cancer. Yes, 2024 will be gone, but it will hardly be forgotten.
And so I move on…more or less. Jacqueline made me promise to take care of myself, and I told her that I would. I’ve always listened to her, and I knew that if I messed up, she would come back from whatever plane of existence she occupied and give me a ration. When I made that promise, it enabled her to let go. She entered Hospice the next day.
In one of our favorite movies, Romancing the Stone, Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner) tells adventurer Jack Colton (Michael Douglas), “You’re the best time I’ve ever had.” He replies, “I’ve never been anyone’s best time.” When we watched it together for the first time, I turned to Jacqueline and repeated Joan’s line. She responded with Jack’s line. Over the years we enjoyed this repartee many times, initiating it equally. And yes, we meant it.
Goodbye 2024, and good riddance.
Aboard the Campo train.
Central Park, NYC.
Yosemite