Recently we lost Allyson to cancer. She was my wife, our sons’ mother, her parents’ daughter, and her brothers’ sister. She was loved by many and I’m touched by the outpouring of support.
While she was fighting to recover in the hospital, I had a lot of time to reflect during those lonely car rides.
This is what I have to say.
I met Allyson in September 1997 while working for the US Army in New Jersey. I had just graduated from their Masters of Software Engineering program. I was now an instructor for Allyson’s incoming class of students.
She instantly caught my eye. Tall, beautiful, cute short blonde hair. I noticed in her computer code that she was naming variables after me, so I summoned the courage to ask her out on a date. We went to the mall to see this new hyped-up comic hero movie called Spawn.
We had simple salads at the food court for dinner. When we got to the movie theater, it was packed! We sat in the first row, all the way to the right. We watched the entire movie with our heads cocked up and to the left. And to make things worse, the movie was terrible!
That was our first date. The worst movie date in history. Cheap food, bad movie. And yet, she agreed to a second date, and we’ve been together ever since. Years later, Allyson revealed to me that…