Dec 11, 2022 - Pictures from across the dinner table.

 Pictures from across the dinner table. 

For several years I have been taking pictures of Kristi from across the dinner table at restaurants we would eat at. The images below are from a Valentine's Day dinner at a place downtown. As you can see, she decided to take one of me too. This Valentine's Day was in 2017, the last one before her getting a colon cancer diagnosis later that year. I'm not sure why I started doing this years ago, but I have a folder on my phone of photos from several Cracker Barrels, The Old Mill in Pigeon Forge, fancy places that we would go to in Gatlinburg, Cancun and Vegas and then the random fast food places where we actually sat down to eat. Many of these photos are of her holding her coffee cup with both hands, like she has always done. Then sometimes I get a funny one like the one below. But most are of her looking at me like I'm the only person in the room. Those are my favorite. 

In the months and years to come, I am going to need those pictures across from me when I eat at home or go out to dinner by myself, which I will do often since I don't cook too many meals, and that's OK with me. It will be a comfort to me because in several of those pictures, she didn't have cancer. She was not hurting. She was not ill and nauseous. She was happy. She was content. She was free. And that's how she will be once she leaves this place. 

Now I do have a good number of the "across the dinner table" pictures of her during the last 5 years of her cancer.  And those are equally special to me, because in those I see a warrior, a survivor from 4 different cancer attacks, a mother that put cancer to the side to still be a mother, a wife that chose to ignore pain and other side effects of treatments and disease to still go walk in the woods or setup a tent or camper with me, and a friend that despite her own illness would still drop everything to be at another friend's side if they needed her. 

Every "across the dinner table" picture is special to me because they are of her  looking at me the way she always does - with love and commitment. I never have to worry about another man. I never have to worry about being lied to. I never have to worry about her falling out of love. Our relationship is not perfect, despite what most might think. We have had our issues but we live by a few requirements. Never go to bed mad at each other, never call each other hurtful names and always respect each other. It's worked for us. We pray our children will search out their future spouses with those same requirements and have a long, committed and loving marriage like we've had.