Sometimes, I think 56 years!  How could we be married that long?  We have had our share of tragic events, nearly losing a child, lost everything in a flood, amongst other things.  We will always remember Dr. Dwight Mc Goon, Rochester, Minnesota.  He saved our son.

We went through fear and stress for a long time, but who perked us up?  It was my husband, Ray.  He was born with the gift of “sunshine”.  He sees it in everything.  Since he was a child, he has had a life of giving  people something to smile and laugh about, even a patient in a hospital.  He has spent a lifetime using humor to lighten the load on the shoulders of a friend,  or just patting someone in a wheel chair, on the back and asking: ” How is my friend?  ” He always got a smile where others couldn’t. 

His life was as a barber at Ellsworth Air Force Base and Ft. Meade Hospital.  Through the years many  have told me, “Everybody likes Ray!”   He cheers people up. He is well versed on almost any subject.  He was a sounding board for many.  He loved all the patients as they became his friends.   His jokes were jokes that can be told in the presence of children.

He was everybody’s friend!  He would do anything he could for a friend.

For a few years, he became a clown called Sparky when he and I (Sophie) visited children in the schools, kindergarten through 3rd grade.  The children always liked him better than me because he was a “klutz”.  He couldn’t do anything right the first time.  He taught them to be patriotic and gave them little flags we got from the VFW Post who kindly helped us.  He encouraged the children to count everyone around them as their friend, regardless of size, and color.    They loved it when he danced for them, even if he was doing the steps all wrong, but miraculously, he always ended

 up right.  (He is a very good dancer.  We have been dancing all those 56 years.)

I wrote a story about a giraffe and a mouse and how they became friends.   I read the story to the children and he showed them my illustrations.  It worked well.  The children were always so attentive.   He even had a joke about a giraffe.  It is a question. ” Why does the giraffe have such a long neck?”  THE ANSWER:  “BECAUSE ITS HEAD IS SO FAR FROM HIS BODY!”  That is so old, I think everyone has heard it, but little 3rd grade children could think it was funny!  Ray was a perfect clown.  When I had suggested that we be clowns, he told me that he liked that idea, because he had been a clown all his life !

After having three surgeries in less than six months earlier this year, I thought the  “clown” had left us, as a crusty old man emerged, but when I heard him tell a joke to a child who loved it, I knew his sense of humor was coming back!

He has had a ministry of spreading  joy all of his life and he is not yet finished!

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