Honoring Roberta

 July 4, 1992.  The elevator door in the building where I lived opened.  There was Roberta. My life changed instantly. March 2, 2011. The elevator door in the building where I lived opened. There was Roberta.  My life changed instantly.

On July 4, 1992 Roberta walked into my life. I had never seen her before. On March 2, 2011 she walked out of my life. I never saw her again.

When I first saw her she was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen - and full of life. When I last saw her almost 19 years later she was still the most beautiful woman I have ever seen - but she was dead.

Roberta was a soft spoken, elegant, sophisticated, accomplished mid-westerner with those legendary values attributed to the Mid-west. She was brought up in an old fashioned 1940's environment. A stay-at-home mother and a working class father with a high school education who worked his way up to a foreman for US Steel when US Steel was the quintessential example of American industrial power. Big and strong he  physically epitomized what one envisions as an industrial foreman but his personal and social aspirations were quite different. He studied French, took dance lessons with Arthur Murray, dressed as if he stepped out of GQ, travelled all over the US and Canada with Roberta and her mother, and was determined to expose Roberta to all that he could that would ultimately create the most multifaceted human being I have known.

I am an extremely fortunate man to have had Roberta for 18 years.  She was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen and the most perfect person in every way imaginable. Our love affair from the first moment we saw each other to the last was a fairy tale experience. Since she had no surviving family it is my honor to dedicate my life to her memory. It has been almost 8 years without her physical presence but I will continue to dedicate my life in Roberta's honor. Honoring My Beloved Wife