The Good Life

 John and Wilda

Our family is deeply saddened by the news that John Terrible Sr. has passed away. He had been hospitalized with complications from the flu, and died peacefully on Wednesday night. He was dearly loved and admired, and his memory will always stay in our hearts. He was 89 years old.

Part of the Greatest Generation, John Sr. was the son of Sicilian immigrants and served as a Marine in the South Pacific during WWII.  After the war he came home to Columbus, Ohio and married his sweetheart Wilda.  He worked a lifetime as a machinist to support his family, and John tells me he can't remember his dad ever missing a day of work.  John and Wilda raised four wonderful kids and I'm married to one of them.

John and Wilda lived life with the gifts of contentment and gratitude.  As John Sr. used to say, he would wake up each morning just wondering how they ever got so lucky in life.

They were a shining example of marriage at its best. In all the decades I knew them, there was never an unkind or harsh word spoken.

Not long ago I was browsing through an old-fashioned book, and ran across a poem talking about how husbands and wives should remember to treat each other.  It reminded me very much of John and Wilda's long and beautiful relationship.

Let us be guests in one another's house
With deferential "No" and courteous "Yes."
Let us take care to hide our foolish moods
Behind a certain show of cheerfulness.

Let us avoid all sullen silences;
You should find fresh and sprightly things to say,
I must be fearful lest you find me dull,
And you must dread to bore me any way.

Let us knock gently at each others' heart,
Glad of a chance to look within- and yet
Let us remember that to force one's way
Is the unpardoned breach of etiquette.

So I shall be your hostess- you, the host-
Until all need for entertainment ends;
We shall be lovers when the last door shuts,
But what's better still, we shall be friends.

by- Carol Haynes