My Husband on Father's Day, 2018

I guess it is natural I would marry a man who was also kind, caring and gentle.  I used to tell my Mom I wanted to marry someone like Dad and she would say, well, it takes time to become that person, they have lots to learn even when they get married.

Nevertheless,  the thing that attracted me to Richard was his caring way and how kind he was to everyone.  From the night we met he made me feel that I was so important to him and he was not letting me go to anyone else and he would take care of me.  That was that. 

Six weeks later he made it happen, we married.  It was not until he had his first heart attack that I realized I could not be "taken care of" forever, I needed to grow up and be a partner and less his burden, not make it more.  He used to always call the babysitter and do anything else I did not want to do.  For instance, scrub the kitchen floor. 

 

Of course, I did the yard work, he did not like that.  And I was a good wife, who did all the things wives in the fifties were expected to do, much more than most think is necessary today, but he took care of me and tried always to do what I asked of him.  Actually, he always used to take my car and get it gassed, even when I had been a career woman for years.  He was always kind and of service.  Resting on the couch? and I needed something, he would willingly go...always of service.

I surely learned to take care of myself, 22 years now...but always, even in those last years when things were so hard and I was not a happy camper a lot of the time and I gained so much weight doing work I did not enjoy in the mortgage business and seeing our world fall apart with the business disasters, he would tell me he loved me, most every day.

 In the Temple, those last three or four years of his life whenever we would chance to meet in our service there, he would immediately whisper in my ear how beautiful I was or tell me he loved me.  He was a caring man.  And he was a caring father, a good father, a good example of work ethics and faithfulness and dutifulness.  He cared so for his Mother and his brother's family and his office workers and anyone else in need.