News Squib#7- Happy 80th Birthday, Joe

It’s Squib Saturday. Time to share the best, most interesting (or most entertaining, or most outrageous) tidbit of information I’ve gleaned from all the stuff I’ve read this week. Today: Best Husband in the World Turns 80

I didn’t need to read anything to find fodder for this week’s squib. It happened right in front of my eyes. My wonderful, loving, generous husband, Joe turned 80 . He was not yet 50 years old when we met. Just 51 when we married. He was 52 when he became a father for the fourth time — to our son, Daniel.

How wonderful is he? Well, I have a friend who has known us as a couple for more than 20 years. To paraphrase what she says about my husband: “Every woman needs a Joe.” ‘Nuff said.

This week, I started to write a squib based on info that’s coming out of a small village in Italy about aging.  Then, I thought:  “Save it. You’ve got ‘aging well and gracefully’ right here at home.” Friends, and strangers too, tell Joe he doesn’t look his age (he certainly doesn’t act it) and most recently he cut out breads and pasta to lose 20 lbs so he is down to the weight he was when we married at City Hall, New York in 1987.

COPD, however, has robbed my husband of the ability to enjoy life to its physical extremes the way he once did. He will never again (foolhardily) ski the double black diamonds at Sunday River in Maine. Nor will he sail singlehandedly out into the ocean off the Florida coast on our sailboat, Mirage (named after the Las Vegas casino where we won the entire price of the boat in one (long) night at the blackjack tables.)

His pursuits these days take place closer to home. The front and backyards of our home in New York are his domain and his vision.  It was his idea to line our circular driveway with Leyland cypresses, and to plant boxwoods along the entire length of the front yard .  He chose the white pines and the flowering plums, cherry trees and Japanese maples that provide shade for the back of the house.

He tends to the back yard every Spring, and through the Summer, filling a dozen or more big  flower pots with fresh potting soil, choosing the plantings, arranging them and watering them daily to create a tapestry of color and magic. The backyard is one of the best features of my summers in New York.

Suffice it to say, I wanted to get him something special for a birthday gift even though he said there was nothing more he wanted or needed. Eventually, I decided on something gold because gold, after all, is the most precious of metals, and I wanted to replace the gold bracelet I had bought for him many years ago, and which he lost.

I also thought he would look good wearing it at the pool of the country club I made him join when I “retired” a couple of years ago.

Of course, neither the bracelet, nor this squib are in any way commensurate with the joy he has brought to my life over the last thirty years. Happy Birthday, my love.

Top Photo: Joe and his oldest son, Joseph at a birthday dinner at Ta-boo, Palm Beach

Photo (second from top): Joe with son, Sean