Twenty-one years ago, I was a miserable human being. I had just gone through a disagreeable divorce. I was living alone in a small, low-income apartment. I had no friends. My kids didn’t want to have anything to do with me. I was depressed. I was lonely. I developed a temper. Going to work was the only recreation and social life that I had.

Then, just by absolute chance, I met a woman who turned my life around and helped me create the man that I am today. (That may sound contrived and clichéd, but it is the absolute and undeniable truth.)

She is vibrant and beautiful and intelligent and full of energy.  She doesn’t know the words “no” or “can’t”. 

At her 50^th birthday party, attendees were asked to describe her in one word.  The word that kept turning up was “EXHUBERANT!” 

She refuses to believe that there are some things that she just can’t do. She is sure of herself in everything, and I have never met another person like her before in my life.

Everything is a game or a challenge to her. She takes on every task with the attitude that she is just simply going to succeed.

She makes me feel loved and important and worthwhile.

She is always ready to give everybody the benefit of the doubt, and she is always ready to forgive when somebody does something against her.

If it was not for her, I not be involved with theatre today.  She is the one who coaxed me back into it after a fifteen year hiatus.

If not for her, I never would have pursued my writing passion, and today, I’ve published numerous short stories and magazine articles, and, just recently,  a play of mine was published and is about to be promoted  on a nation-wide basis.

If not for her, I wouldn’t have a relationship with any of my kids.  When she first met me, none of my children were even speaking to me.  Today, I have loving relationships with all of them, and they love to spend time with me. (How many times has she said to me, when I felt slighted by one of them, “What’s more important? The issue or the relationship?”)

If not for her, I would never have skied or sailed or done scuba diving. And today, I own a sailboat, have sailed internationally and locally, have skied all over the country, and love to scuba in the southern Caribbean.

If not for her, I would never have owned and ridden horses.

If not for her, I wouldn’t have anything. I would be a grumpy old man with a bad temper and a life filled with fear and loneliness.  Her love and patience and wisdom changed all that for me.

She is my grounding wire.  My stabilizing force. My teacher.

A more active person you will never meet.  When she’s not on her tractor attending to her pastures, she’s alpine skiing or sailing or scuba diving or horseback riding. Or else she’s off to far-distant destinations all over the world in search of new adventures. (She has skied The Remarkables in New Zealand and rode a horse on The Great Wall of China.)

With all of her interests and hobbies, the most important thing in the world to her is her family. She loves me, her four kids and their spouses with her whole heart, and she positively ADORES her three granddaughters. (You will never meet anyone who LOVES being a grandmother any more than she!)

She is nothing short of amazing. Her well of energy and love and understanding is bottomless, and her exciting, buoyant personality attracts others to her like metal shavings to a magnet.

What she sees in me, I really don’t know. What I do know is that she loves me wholly and completely.

I am so glad that I have been given what I want in life, and not what I deserve.

She has shown me how to live and how to be grateful.

She has taught me how to give and receive love.

She has shown me how to be human.

She is the most remarkable person that I’ve ever met, and I love her more than anything or anyone else in the universe.

Happy Birthday, Mary Ellen!