Believing in love all over again

July 10, 2008

Dear Patty,

Some people make you want to be around them, to warm yourself with the kindness in their hearts. Our friends Jack and Sally are like that. But more, the delight they take in each other, their deep affection and respect for each other, make you believe in love all over again.

Jack and Sally left Tuesday for their new home in western North Carolina. For me and lots of others, this was a better place to live because they lived here.

They're moving to a mountain community south of Ashville where most the residents are artists like they are. Jack has taught dulcimer-making at the nearby John C. Campbell Folk School and makes silver jewelry. Sally's eclectic fabric creations have been displayed by a local artists guild here for many years. Her silks are serious, but she also is the creator of a remarkable article of clothing she calls Power Panties.

It's supposed to be axiomatic that everyone gets more conservative as they age, but Sally is a mold breaker. The former Young Republican is now as liberal as anyone I know.

DC and I have known Sally a long time. Sally and I often sat next to each other in our alphabetically ordered seventh-grade classes. She confided recently that in school she hated being "too tall." I confided back that I had had a secret crush on her back then but never thought of her as too tall. I just thought I was too short. We both grew out of those misconceptions.

Before retiring earlier this year, Sally was a physical therapist who specialized in helping elderly people. Before he retired last year, Jack ran a historical site called Bollinger Mill, which includes one of Missouri's treasured covered bridges. He started a concert series there that brought in many Missouri musicians whose songs about riverboats and outlaws and the like remind listeners of the state's rich folklore. He plays the hammered dulcimer himself.

Jack credits me with getting him involved in a weight management program that has transformed his body. All I did was turn down his invitation to dinner. He and Sally had invited DC and me to see the labyrinth meditation walk Sally created at their church. After walking the labyrinth Jack wondered if we'd like to join them for dinner at a restaurant. We declined because we'd just started the weight management program and were consuming only meal replacements then. Jack's inquisitiveness took over from there.

He became the program's star cook, teaching classes how to make tasty dishes from those 160-calorie meal replacement packages. He became one of the program's models of success, losing 100 pounds and getting off blood pressure and cholesterol medications.

After our weekly "fat class," Sally, Jack and I and sometimes others often went to a Mexican restaurant to eat sensibly and to talk not sensibly at all for hours about cheesy temptations one moment and our beliefs about heaven the next.

Jack and Sally have found a mountaintop home that is magical to them and an atmosphere that nurtures their creativity just as they nurture each other.

That sounds like one way to describe heaven to me.

Love, Sam

Sam Blackwell is a former reporter for the Southeast Missourian.