A Young Widower's Tale
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Sad passing, seeing a friend again, and more about Texas A friend’s two year old daughter passed away Sunday. I hadn’t heard about it until Brent, my friend from Phoenix, called the other night to tell me the news. He called because the funeral will be held in a town about ten miles from my home. He said he was looking into coming up for the funeral if he could find affordable airline tickets. Last night he called and said he was flying up Friday night. I invited him to stay with Marathon Girl and I and he accepted. So it will be a bittersweet weekend. It will be nice to see Brent again after 2 ½ years. (The last time I saw him was when I traveled down to Phoenix to see some Tiger games.) But at the same time I don’t know if I’d be going to the funeral if he wasn’t coming up. It’s not that I don’t want to go and support my friends in their hour of sorrow, I just worry about how I’d hold up at the funeral of a child. In reality, I’m probably worrying about nothing. I saw another friend’s daughter last month in the NICU that Hope stayed in and I made it through that without any problems. Should be interesting weekend…. *** Some more about our trip to Texas. It seems like every time Marathon Girl runs a marathon, other runners come up to her and either 1) ask her to join their running club or 2) ask if she’s thought about training full time and becoming an elite marathon runner. Both happened after the Texas Marathon. Soon after the race, another runner in his 50s approached Marathon Girl and asked if she had considered training full time. Apparently this guy had been an elite marathon runner back in his prime and thought Marathon Girl has a lot of potential if she could train full time. If he would have stopped there, all would have been well with the world. Instead he proceeded to tell her in order to become an elite runner she’d have to give up things like her marriage, sex, and having any more children. Of course he’s telling her this while I’m standing right next to her. Marathon Girl, who is a lot more gracious than I in these kind of situations, told him very politely that she was flattered that he thought she had potential but that her family, not running marathons, was her main priority. The man shook his head as he walked away telling her that her priorities were messed up. At this point we decided it was time to head back to the hotel. I went to retrieve the car and when I returned another runner was talking to her. Apparently this runner was the president of one of the elite Texas running clubs and asked her if she would like to join. Of course the fact that we live in Utah prevents her from doing that. He was really nice about everything though and told her he was impressed with the way she ran the marathon and regretted that she lived too far away. Later that night I asked Marathon Girl if she wanted to train full time and to become an elite distance runner. “Before I met you, I thought about doing that,” she said. “But once you came into my life, my priorities changed. I enjoy running but right now I’m happy being a wife and a mother.” “I’d support you if you wanted to train full time,” I said. “I know.” There was silence for several moments. “One of the things that really attracted me to you when we were dating was that if we ever married is that you’d make me the number one priority in your life,” I said. “Most of the other people I dated seemed to be wanting to get married just to be married. Most weren’t willing to make the commitment it takes to keeps it going working.” Marathon Girl smiled and cuddled up close. “That’s what I liked about you too,” she said. You Can Now Purchase Room for Two - 2007-08-31 |
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