photo: Martha G. Brady
Happy Birthday Ron!
Can you believe it has been this many years? I remember when we started dating…I guess you would call it that. We didn’t get to have very many dates because we were far apart much of the time. But during one of my breaks and after a 2 week mission trip in Costa Rica, you seemed to think we might be headed for a future together. I had figured it out earlier than that. We were sitting in the moonlight on the beach in Ft. Lauderdale. You were thinking out loud that if I was 21 and you were 29 and you followed in your dad’s footsteps, I would be a young widow. (He died of heart disease at age 47.) I blithely said, “If I don’t care, I don’t know why you should.”
My response took you back a bit. You laughed and said, “I didn’t expect that response!” I went on to tell you that I didn’t think we should second guess our future based on something that might happen. You might live to a ripe old age and miss out on a good marriage and happy family.
It wasn’t many months before you came to visit me in Philadelphia and eventually proposed before your visit was over! By the time a year had passed, I had graduated and we were married!
Although it wasn’t a totally intellectual decision, one of the wisest decisions I made was to marry you!
Today, you are 79 years old and in September, we will celebrate 49 years of marriage. Marrying Ron was one of the wise decisions of my life, for sure! Our years together have been full of everything. Excitement, grief, fun, pain, lots and lots of laughter, the joy of children, the grief of losing some, the joy of serving together in ministry as well as the agony that goes with it.
At this point in our lives, we have 3 daughters, 3 sons-in-law and 7 grandchildren. Ron has been retired for a few years. It is almost 2 years since he had a stroke that changed him, but did not take away his humor. Our lives have slowed down a bit, but we are still active.
Your kindness and respect for people has been a wonderful example for me over the years. You have been a great illustration for me of someone who will reach out to people who treat him like an enemy at times, but he still honors them with respect and the willingness to hear their side of the story. It is a gift that is less and less common these days.
Yes, I loved your preaching, but your life underlined and reinforced what you said from the pulpit in ways that were much more powerful than what you said on Sunday mornings.
Your life at home reinforced what you said from the pulpit in ways that were much more powerful. Share on XYou have been the steady one we could count on all these years. Thank you.
You were the calm one in a family of all women. At times, we weren’t always thrilled with you for that, but usually we appreciated it. Having someone all these years who is an island of stability when I am not always that way, has been a wonderful ground.
It has been a difficult adjustment to have to be in charge of new areas recently as you have been unable to carry the load you once carried. I have been a blessed woman because of you. So has our family.
Happy, happy birthday Ron. I’m so glad you were born 79 years ago! You are loved by many…in Florida, Jamaica, Texas and Illinois…as well as Wisconsin and other places in the US and Canada.
I love you and am so glad to have been your wife and partner for all these years!
O God, from my youth you have taught me,
and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
So even to old age and gray hairs,
O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might to another generation,
your power to all those to come.Psalm 71:17-18
Beautifully written and a true picture of Ron. Happy Birthday and I too am grateful that you were born. You were a rock and encourager for during my most difficult times! You are truly loved from Texas.
so glad you came by lynn. i’m happy you are doing well and that mark is such a wonderful teddy bear:) he truly is a good, kind man! i so miss our visits. don’t know when i’ll ever get back to TX.
Well I think I said happy birthday to the wrong (but beautiful) picture of you two lovebirds. Your words are a testament of your faith in God and love for each other through Him. I have such sweet memories of you both from Plaza Presbyterian youth gatherings and Costa Rica. May the Lord bless and keep you happy and in good health. Happy birthday Ron…and many more to come❤️??
thanks for dropping by here mary jane (or is it wayne?). we weren’t the only lovebirds on that trip to costa rica were we? it is exciting that we are all still together and growing in our faith after all these years:) thanks so much to both of you.
Thank you for taking the time to write this Martha! Thank you for taking the time to see and be thankful! You have both been a blessing to many. Your faithful lives point us to Jesus!
i’m so glad angie:) my natural tendency is to remember failure. it takes work to remember the truth of what GOD has done by His grace. thanks for your kind words.
What a wonderful tribute, Martha. I have appreciated how you consistently hold Ron up as one who is worthy of respect and esteem. So clear that Ron found a virtuous wife.
Thank you for the wonderful example you are of a faithful, loving wife.
thanks kay:) your words are too kind. just remember, what you see here is the sanitized version of me. part of the struggle in adjusting to the stroke is respecting him when he can’t do many of the things he once did. i respect him as a human being and for who he is. but remembering to respect him when he has forgotten to do something or when his time remembrance has gotten away from him AGAIN, is something i’m working on. my daughter is trying to help me with it too. it’s the little things that are so powerful isn’t it?
What a beautiful birthday tribute to your love. I enjoyed hearing the story of your early and later years. Life is so wonderful with its twists, turns, and humor. Jenn
thanks jenn:) you’re right. there have been plenty of twists and turns!
What a beautiful tribute to Ron and your life together!
thanks beth:) thanks for your kind words that have joined the many others that came yesterday and made ron’s birthday so enjoyable:) hope you and larry are doing ok.