A lot of you know the story of how Joan and I met but for those of you that don't

I will tell you my story. The first year you lose someone you love is the hardest,

the first December I was having a hard time as Christmas was always Bubba's

favorite time of the year, my daughter Martha, my son-in-law Jimmy and my

granddaughter Jessica were living with me at the time and we had no Christmas

spirit, we didn't even decorate or plan any thing special.

I went to the cemetery one day and I said Bubba I am having a hard time

adjusting to you being gone. I said I have prayed, I have talked to family and friends

but it is still tough. I said I know God is very busy but if you get a chance to talk

to him ask him if there is any thing he can do to help a lost soul down here on earth. 

About a week after that I got a Christmas card from Joan, Joan and Bubba had been friends

for many years and had bowled together, I was really surprised that her being Joan's friend

and Bubba had passed that she had not scratched me off her card list as I had only

met here a few times through Bubba. That was on a Saturday, I thought about it all weekend

and on Monday I looked in Bubba's old address book and Joan's phone number was in there,

I called her to thank her for the card and we talked for an hour. Joan had lost her husband

at a young age also when her daughters were 17 and 13 so I knew she had been through

the loss of a spouse. When we hung up I said WOW you did not tell me any thing I probably have

not heard from lots of other people but it was like I was hearing it for the first time. I said this is the best

I have felt since Bubba died, can I call you again some time and she said yes you can.

I waited about a week and called her again, another hour just flew by, I said I have a friend in the hospital

in West Palm Beach, I was living in Lake Placid, Florida at the time I asked her if we could continue our conversation over dinner and she said yes.

Now as Paul Harvey use to say, now here is the rest of the story. LOL:

I called her a couple of times to confirm us going out to dinner and got nervous and hung up. I said to myself you dummy if she has caller ID she is going to think you are nuts so I finally made the call to confirm. We were going out on a Saturday evening so I came over on Friday and stayed with some friends. When I got up Saturday morning my friend said Joe how did you sleep, I said do you really want to know or are you asking just to be polite, he said of course I want to know and I said well the truth of the matter I didn't sleep hardly at all. I told him I was to nervous to sleep and I said as a matter of fact I am really nervous now. He assured me every thing would be alright . I showered and put on my best cologne and headed over to her house. I was so nervous that I drove around the block a couple of times before I had the nerve to pull in her driveway. LOL I knocked on the door and she opened and I went in. We were standing in her foyer talking and she asked me if there was something wrong with my ear, I said I don't think so WHY, she said I was just wondering as you have a Q-tip sticking out of your ear. LMAO  What an impression that was, any way we went to dinner, talked a lot and when I took her home she said it is a holiday weekend and she had something planned for Sunday but if I was going to be around on Monday she would be off work and maybe we could do something. Well I have to tell you what a relief that was as I thought well maybe she doesn't thing I am a complete idiot. LOL

Long story short that was a start of a wonderful relastionship that ended up with us getting married on November 10, 2002. 

God needed Bubba for one of his Angels and in looking out for me replaced her with another Angel, and I thank him for that every day.