What are you most proud of in your life?

Daily writing prompt
What are you most proud of in your life?
View all responses

What are you most proud of in your life?

The young lady in the photograph above. We met, at a boarding school dance, in England, when we were both seventeen years old. We have been together ever since. Why am I so proud of her? Let me count the ways.

When she discovered my love of Spain and the Spanish language, she took time out from her own career in order to learn Spanish. When I asked her why she was learning the language, she replied ‘because if I am going to be with you, I want to share your life, and that means loving the things you love.’ We became engaged in Santander, Spain, on her 21st birthday. Then, the following year, when I received an offer to study and teach at the University of Toronto, she promised me that if I called her, she would come out and join me.

I called her as a Thanksgiving Gift from my Canadian family. She packed up her clothes and her career, bought a wedding dress, and travelled to Toronto that December. We got married on Christmas Eve. We had very little money. We didn’t have a wedding photographer. Nor did we have a honeymoon. I guess we never needed one. We had just enough money put by to last us until the end of January. So, First week of the New Year, she set out in search of a job. A qualified Diagnostic Radiographer, she was hired by the Doctor’s Hospital in Toronto, and she financed my graduate studies for the next three years.

Our next adventure was a Canada Council (as it was back then) Doctoral Fellowship that took us back to Spain where I completed the research for my thesis at the local library, with its trove of manuscript documents. We returned to Canada after two years, and took up residence in Fredericton, New Brunswick, where we still live. Her adventurous life led her to a certificate in accountancy, taken via a correspondence course. Then, she presented me with our daughter. We bought an American Cocker Spaniel and she started showing and grooming dogs, becoming Show Secretary of the Fredericton Kennel Club. She trained and groomed two Canadian Champions, an ASCOB (Willy) and a Parti-color (Smudge).

Our daughter decided she wanted to be a gymnast. Parents were requested to ‘get involved’ with the local club and my beloved became a gymnastics judge. She rose in the gym circles and became first provincial judging chairperson and then a nationally qualified judge, officiating at the National Gymnastics Championships and also at the Jeux du Canada Games.

She travelled with me to Oaxaca, Mexico, and fell in love with the Pre-Colombian Mexican Codices that we found there in abundance. She studied them carefully and then taught me all about them. I, in my turn, introduced them to my own students. When I took my first Multi-Media Courses at the University of New Brunswick, she followed them with me. The result was two-fold – our first web page which she built with with HTML, no templates in those early days, followed by our online Quevedo Bibliography. This, about ten years later, morphed into the online searchable data base that she built with the assistance of the technicians at the Digital Library in Harriet Irving Library.

Now, we are growing old together – such sweet sorrow. this Christmas we will celebrate 57 years of marriage. And yes, my beloved is still my most valuable Christmas present – and the person of whom I am most proud. I remember the old Worthington beer advertisement. “Behind every good man, there’s a good woman.” The cartoon shows a lady carrying a bottle of Worthington.

My beloved has stood behind me all my life. She has carried for me, not a bottle of Worthington, but the burden of assisting, helping, encouraging, supporting, carrying the load when it became too heavy for me. She has been a silent partner in so many ways, but one without whom I would be nothing.

23 thoughts on “What are you most proud of in your life?”

  1. Pingback: What are you most proud of in your life? – ZoroSy جودة وإتقان
    • rogermoorepoet's avatar

      Thank you, Tiffany. Clare and I have interwoven the fabric of our lives. Growing older together is such sweet sorrow. We look after each other as well as we can and together we survive. Thank you for being there, along with us. Much appreciated.

      Liked by 2 people

  7. Jon Masters's avatar

    Two lives intertwined in harmony – moving and eloquent Roger. Thanks for sharing it!

    Jon Masters P.Eng., C.Eng., MICE 18-26123 Twp Rd 511, Spruce Grove, AB, Canada. T7Y 1B9

    Phone or text: 780-913-2991 ________________________________

    Liked by 2 people

      • Jon Masters's avatar

        I went to a dance at Badminton School too – I wonder if it was the same occasion, though I don’t remember any of the girls from that evening!

        Jon Masters P.Eng., C.Eng., MICE 18-26123 Twp Rd 511, Spruce Grove, AB, Canada. T7Y 1B9

        Phone or text: 780-913-2991 ________________________________

        Liked by 2 people

      • rogermoorepoet's avatar

        There was only one between Wycliffe and Badminton. They usually matched up with Clifton and I think we went with Westonbirt. It was the only dance I went to. They didn’t let me out of the cage very often. Their head girl was quite keen on Alger (Springfield!). hence the change of partners.

        Liked by 2 people

      • Jon Masters's avatar

        Maybe it was Westonbirt I went to for a dance not Badminton?? Maybe it was just the Horse Trials at Badminton maybe – those I did go to! All a bit hazy so many years later.

        Jon Masters P.Eng., C.Eng., MICE 18-26123 Twp Rd 511, Spruce Grove, AB, Canada. T7Y 1B9

        Phone or text: 780-913-2991 ________________________________

        Liked by 2 people

Leave a comment