My Wife and I were married on April 16, 1966, in Decatur, Illinois. We had a mutual agreement that we would be married in a Catholic Church by a Priest and a Methodist preacher, My Brother Rev Norman Earl Trolia. The Ceremony was planned by one phone call. Everything was taken care of by my family. They provided the entire Wedding party even the Soloist was one of my relatives and she sang in Italian “Ave Marie”. At her wedding, she was surrounded by my family. Only Her Mother, Father, and Brother were present.

She left this Earth April Fools Day in 2016 so had she lived 15 more days we would have been married 50 years. When she was approaching death. She never let me make any decision, she refused all medication that would have made her death more comfortable for both her and me. I never wanted to see her in pain, but being stubborn as she was she only requested that the Hospice Nurse stay and when asked why she said she felt at ease with her there. She was buried in the same Grave Plot as our only Daughter.

Life after her Death has awakened me to what she did for me and others. I now not only have to do the things that I have always done but now I must do the things that she had always done. For a while, my Grandson lived with me and picked up some of the slack, but now he has moved out and so now I am all alone. My Son comes to visit me sometimes and he is a great help to me. Part of the struggle I had was that I never knew until the Doctor said “You have Cancer” even when she gave me subtle hints. She never wanted to retire just because I retired, she enjoyed her job at the Federal Department of Transportation. But one day she came home and said that she had put in her request to retire and that she had elected to set aside 10% of her retirement for me after death and said that I needed to sign some documents for Office of Personnel Management. She had not seen a Doctor for an exam for seven years which the Insurance would have paid 100% for it, but within two months she wanted me to go with her for an OBGYN exam. She went through all the usual treatments for Cancer, but when you wait for seven years you don’t stand much of a chance of winning that battle.