Ed's Birthday

Today is my husband’s 42^nd birthday. (Yeah, I like older men…) I think he’s finding it a little hard to believe. Human frailty has hit him a bit this year as he has lost two old friends from high school to colon cancer. Many of his friends have kids that will soon graduate from high school themselves. And so while he has a 17 month old with a baby on the way, it doesn’t make him any younger. In fact, chasing Emry around seems to make us all the more aware that we are old and wear out fast.

It’s hard to believe I’ve known this man for nearly 7 years, since he put out his hand and introduced himself to me as “Ed” one evening at church. No big deal there. It was a small church. I knew everyone’s name. Although I do remember thinking it funny a moment later when one of the kids ran up and said happily, “Hi, Mr. Ed!” The ditty began in my head, “A horse is a horse, of course, of course….the famous Mr. Ed!”

I didn’t begin to notice him much for another year. I had work, and friends, and activities, and was continually plotting on the best exit-strategy out of Texas. Plus, I had never in my life had a guy pay any attention to me, so you could have knocked me over with a feather when he asked if I liked to play miniature golf. And now we’re married with a family. Who knew?

Since coming to Pittsburgh, it has made this terrible city a little easier to see parts of him I’ll never actually know. Even if we had “grown up together”, we wouldn’t have actually “grown up together”. A 16-year old junior in high school would have thought nothing of an 11-year old just starting 6^th grade. And vice versa. Now I’ve seen the places he lived, met some of his old friends, heard him reminisce about growing up in the only place he ever knew. (A very odd idea to me…) His dad doesn’t talk about the past much, but his mom will tell stories, too. Although he’s told and told me I have to take many grains of salt with just about every story she tells. Still, there is some truth there about the little Eddie that is fun to know.

Happy Birthday, Ed!