Heart to Heart

I started teaching at Bow High School in the fall of 2009 and Bob was one of the first people I met.
He is the AV and tech guy, so I knew we'd be working together when it came time for my concerts. We got along right from the start and often hung out in my office, just chatting and laughing. He has a great sense of humor and we just clicked, though at that time I was thinking of him as just a friend. The more time we spent together, the more we just liked hanging out. By mid-October I found myself making excuses to go to his office and finding ways that I could see him throughout the day. At that point I realized that I really liked him and I thought he might like me too, but I wasn't sure. He was actually going in for open heart surgery at the beginning of November and he decided to take a leap and ask me out 2 days before his surgery. We went out to dinner and talked for hours. He told me how much he liked me and how he had liked me for months. He had been asking around to other teachers at school to find out if I was married or if I had a boyfriend - he was very relieved when he found out neither was true. His surgery was a huge success and hearing his voice when he called me from the hospital was the best thing I've ever heard. I always tell him that they opened up his heart so I could climb in. We got engaged at the end of March and our wedding is October 2, 2010 in New Hampshire.

Jon Stewart and Tracey McShane

Jon Stewart and Tracey McShane

 

In order to maintain a balanced point of view in today's volatile political climate, I relied on two major news sources; the thoughtful :) conservative pieces presented by Steven Colbert, and the more comfortable (to me) liberal point of view presented by Jon Stewart in The Daily Show.

Despite the fact that Jon Stewart readily recognizes his show is meant to be satire and comedy, The Daily Show has received 16 Emmy awards, and has been nominated for various news and journalism awards.  His intelligence and wit, along with his passion for truth results in "fake news" which often is presented with more authenticity than the "news" found on major networks.

Roger Federer and Mirka Vavrinec

Transitions can be difficult, and it seems as though Roger Federer is going through one now.

To everyone's surprise he's had a rough Grand Slam season, exiting in the semi-finals in the Australian Open in January, the quarter-finals in the French Open in early June, and the 2nd round at Wimbledon to a player ranked 116th.

Despite everyone's hope for a Federer miracle, he lost in straight sets to Tommy Robrado of Spain at the U.S. Open just days ago.

"I've definitely got to go back to work and come back stronger," Federer stated in a post match interview.
"Get rid of this loss now as quick as I can, forget about it, because that's not how I want to play from here on, I want to play better. I know I can."

Always in his corner giving him support, love, and advice is his devoted family.

Federer was born in Binnington, Switzerland, a small area near Basel. He credits his amazing tennis skills to the variety of sports he played growing up: badminton, cricket, and basketball.

He is an avid cricket fan, and knows that he is interested "whenever a ball is involved."

Apparently that interest extends into his personal life. In 2000, while competing for Switzerland in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, he met and fell in love with fellow Swiss teammate, Mirka Vavrinec.


 After suffering from a foot injury in 2002, Mirka retired from tennis and took on the role of Federer's personal relations manager.

The two were married in a small ceremony near Basel on April 11,2009, and on July 23rd 2009 Mirka gave birth to identical twins, Myla Rose and Charlene Riva.

Big Win for Federer!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Federer

Photo Okayed - Matchmaking with a Happily Ever After Ending

One day a proposal came to my father from the prospective suitable boy's maternal uncle.  Our family was known to them.  After the initial proposal, the uncle and the prospective boy's father came to discuss the proposal with my father one evening.  Maa made necessary preparations to receive the important guests.

During the meeting the suitability of the boy was discussed which included his education, which was pretty impressive, his profession and family.   The uncle then asked baba about me.  Both seemed to be satisfied and agreed to progress.  Photographs were exchanged.  The boy's photo was shown to me and my opinion was sought.  I saw the face of a reasonably personable young man and decided he would do. I guess the young man also thought the same, for it was rumored his telegram to his parents read 'Photo Okayed'. 

Henry Ford The Great Believer

Although Henry Ford and Clara Bryant grew up within eight miles of each other, they first met at a New Year's Eve Ball when Clara was 18. They spoke for only a few minutes, but Henry Ford would always recollect that he knew Clara was the girl for him right away. Henry Ford, who loved dancing, attended many more dances that season, but it was nearly a year before he saw Clara again. The young couple soon became engaged and were married on April 11,1888, the bride's twenty second birthday.

Henry Ford often referred to his wife as his great believer. Clara always showed faith and confidence through all the years of hard work and challenges.

Her support was rewarded.  After living in a total of ten rental homes, Henry's dream of success finally came true. They bought 2,000 acres along the Rouge River in Dearborn, and Fair Lane, the home where Clara and Henry would live the rest of their lives, was constructed.

In Dearborn, Clara and Henry would entertain friends and family at Fair Lane. The Fords also continued to enjoy dancing; Henry saw to it that Fair Lane had a large dance floor and that it was regularly used.

In a 1938 issue of The New York Times Magazine, Henry Ford was quoted as saying, "The greatest day of my life was the day I married Mrs. Ford."  Apparently Henry Ford was a great believer,too.

http://corporate.ford.com/news-center/press-releases-detail/651-clara-ford

Sam Hunt and Hannah Lee Fowler

Sam Hunt, most likely, met Hannah Lee Fowler when he was playing football at the University of Alabama.
The couple dated for nearly a decade, and their many ups and downs are well known to Hunt's fans, as they are beautifully described in the lyrics of the songs making up Montevallo, his debut studio album.

Hunt's compositions describe falling in love, breaking up and experiencing the agony of nearly losing his long time love. When you listen to songs like "Leave the Night On" to "Make You Miss Me", you almost live the couples' initial whirlwind romance to tragic parting of ways. "Drinkin Too Much" is almost too painful to listen to. In it Sam Hunt displays brutal honesty as he blames himself completely for breaking apart any love the couple was managing to salvage together at that point.

The good news is Hunt's honesty devotion, total respect  and absolute love finally won Hannah Lee over in the end.
I'm sure it took persistence, change, a tough talk with her family, with whom she is very close, and an ability to show Hannah Lee that Sam Hunt was here to stay.

The couple was married in Hunt's hometown of Georgia in 2017. Hunt credits Fowler with making him the successful artist he is today. He shares his compositions with her, seeks her advice and feels that she has made him better able to connect to a female audience by the things she has taught him.

Go Hannah!

 Oh, and she is also a nurse...out there helping humanity.

I love this couple and wish them all the best and also hope that they continue to have a very positive effect on the world of country music.

George and Martha

 

George Washington was about to emerge a hero from the French and Indian War when he proposed to Martha Dandridge Custis.


 She was a young, beautiful, recently widowed and very sought after prize in the affluent and powerful Chesapeake society. Chances are good that George and Martha had known each other through mutual friends. They became engaged sometime in early summer 1758 and were married on January 6,1759.



There is always strong speculation that George Washington was passionately in love with Sally Fairfax, the wife of his best friend George William.  It seems, however, that all parties "moved on" and the Washingtons and the Williams remained the closest of friends. 

When George proposed to Martha he was undoubtedly enamored by her independence and diminutive beauty (she was a full 13 inches shorter than he), but there is no doubt that Washington was taking care of his future and marrying someone with more wealth and power than he possessed. 

The marriage ended up to be a wonderful one. Martha had two young children by her previous marriage, and George Washington raised them as if they were his own. He was heartbroken over the loss of 17 year old, Patsy and had tried all attempts to save her from her illness. When his step son, Jack, now a young father himself, died from typhus,Washington raised his children and assumed responsibility for their futures.


Martha proved to be the perfect match for this straight forward, yet ambitious, man. She hated being away from home and hearth, but dutifully traveled to Valley Forge each year during the war campaign to bolster the morale of both the troops and her husband. I think the most telling aspect of their marriage is George's instruction to Martha that she destroy all correspondence between them in the event of his death. Clearly he poured out his heart and soul out to her and, being the very discreet man that he was, did not think that history should intrude on this private love.


During this president's weekend we will see the familiar image of an old George Washington on everything from dollars to car sale signs. Martha has been forever enshrined as the old woman wearing the bonnet. Let's, though, remember them for who they really were; he, a 27 year old handsome soldier just home from the battle front , and she a 27 year old, diminutive Southern Belle, mother of two, who wore purple silk shoes with spangled buttons on her wedding day.

 Love comes suddenly to some and gradually to others; the test is in the time. The Custis-Washingtons were happily married for 40 years.

Kerry Washington and Nnamdi Asomugha

After watching Kerry Washington's interview with Jon Stewart, I became a big fan.

I was very impressed with this actress' poise,style, sense of humor, and sense of self.

Kerry Washington does not seem to be filled with the self importance which often accompanies her level of success, and she has a delightful perspective concerning the intensity of her character, Olivia Pope and her hit show Scandal.

Washington grew up in a middle class family in Brooklyn, NY. Her dad was a realtor and her mom an educator. Kerry earned a BA from George Washington University and went on to establish an acting career on stage and in film.

Seth Meyers and Alexi Ashe

It seems that Seth Meyers and his wife, Alexi Ashe are quite familiar with special occasions taking dramatic turns.

Seth and Alexi met, as many couples do, at the wedding of a friend.  It was love at first sight and the couple married in October 2013. Unfortunately, Alexi had a rushed trip to the ER when she suffered food poisoning at the rehearsal dinner. As she lay passed out on the gurney, a nurse walked by and commented: "You're not getting married today." That's all Alexi needed! She sat up, recovered and said, "I'm getting married today!"


The birth of their son, Ashe, gave occasion for another dramatic family event.

During his 2016 opening monologue, Seth Meyers did a lovely job of sharing the Easter Sunday rush to the hospital as Ashe decided to arrive two weeks early. Seth credited Uber driver, Tariq for his calm compassion and capability in the face of a stressful situation. Of course, Seth then went on to praise his wife for enduring intense labor in the back seat of the car and holding it together until they arrived to meet their "bunny-eared" baby delivery team.

Two years later, Seth announced the birth of his second son, Axel, on  April 10th 2018.
 Referring back to the Easter "Uber Story" he  began his opening monologue by saying,
"Well...move over that story."

This time Alexi did not even make it down in the elevator before the baby made his speedy entrance. Once again, Seth praised his wife for staying collected while surrounded by the NYC fire department as the cord was cut, and she snuggled her new little guy.

Who knows what the next Ashe-Meyer drama will be? Let's hope that whatever the start, the endings continue to be joyous.