In Honor of my Husband

Today is my husband’s 70th birthday and since it is a milestone, I thought I would dedicate this post to him !
I can’t believe he is 70! My husband has never ‘acted his age’ and I hope he never will. People who know him know what I mean. He is fit, trim and full of energy.
Vic’s earthly passion is mountain hiking, as you can see in the recent photo. (Mt. Frosty,2006) I’ve lost count of how many mountains he has summitted and many of them numerous times. His name is in the little metal box that rests on the peak of Mt. Baker. He has been assigned the nick name ‘Mountain Goat’ for obvious reasons. He surpasses most young men in energy and agility and when they are groaning the next day , sore from the exertion of trying to keep up with him on a strenuous mountain trail, he is up and ready to go again. He also loves snow shoeing, cross country skiing and playing tennis.

His favorite line is – “We can’t just sit here! What do you want to do?”

I’ve long given up hoping that maybe one day he would say, “You know what? let’s just have a nice quiet day at home, curled up in front of the fire with our books !!”

But that’s OK. I only had one thing on my list of ‘what to look for in a prospective husband’, and that was that I did not want to be bored. In our 42 years of marriage (this August) I can tell you I have been many things, but never bored!!

Much as he enjoys the outdoors, his greatest love is for God. He loves to read his bible and spends much time in prayer. He cares deeply about people’s spiritual state and agonizes over those he knows have fallen away from walking with the Lord. He has had many deep experiences with the Lord , and values every one of them. He is very discerning regarding the things of the Lord, and feels very strongly about the truth. He desires everyone to grow to maturity in the Lord and to serve Him, and he strives to be a faithful example.

Vic was born in the Ukraine in a Mennonite village, but World War II shattered the life the village had known for hundreds of years. The men were taken to Siberia, Vic’s father included, and the women and children and a few spared men had to flee for their lives with wagons and horses. That is a story in itself, but eventually, after living two years in the Netherlands , Vic with his mother and two younger brothers came to Canada in 1948 and has lived in B.C. all his life.
He met me when he was 26 and I was 15 - I mention that because our marriage has survived in spite of the odds. We were married four days after my eighteenth birthday. Has our marriage been perfect? No, we have had our rough spots, our ups and down, our struggles and pain and disappointments and all the things that go into building a life-time marriage relationship. We have also become strong together because divorce was never an option, and our love for each other not in question.

Vic has a quick mind and has a keen interest in science and astromomy and also loves music. He has a beautiful singing voice and I love to stand beside him in church and listen to him sing.

Vic is a very ‘what you see is what you get’ kind of person. He says what he thinks and shows what he feels.

He is always ready to help anyone in trouble or needing help.

He is deeply compassionate…especially to someone who is hurting or ill.

He is a ‘jack of all trades’ and is often called on , even though he is officially retired, to fix this or build that. He is not the kind of person to retire to a life of ease , he has to keep moving and working part time helps use up some of that stored up energy. I tell him he should just bottle some of it and we could sell it and get rich !!

He is very family oriented and loves to spend time with our kids and grandkids and also extended family. He will often say, “Did you talk to the kids today?” or “Let’s go see your Mom and Dad.”

He is very handy to have around the house, and also very willing to do whatever I think I want, whether it is an addition to my kitchen cupboards or shelves in the storage room or a bigger window in my dining room
He is not one to show up with flowers and chocolate on Valentines Day but he does other things like never having to be told to take out the garbage and my toweling is always magically replaced when it is almost used up and he is happy to do the vacuuming . He scrapes the car’s windshield if I need to go out or turns the car around for me, or picks up something I need from the store and sometimes surprises me with something for no reason at all other than the fact that he loves me.

He is affectionate and while his hugs and kisses are freely given to his family, he is slow to be the first to offer a hug to others , preferring a manly handshake.

He is paranoid about germs and is fastidious about making sure that no invitation is left lying around anywhere for them to multiply.

His cure-all for any ailment is onions – eating them raw or applying the juice topically.

My daughter and family when they watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding laughed so hard at the father who ran around spraying everything with Windex. They said they needed to get Vic an empty Windex bottle that he could fill it with onion juice!!

A funny thing is that our youngest granddaughter was born with his abhorrence of germs and recently when her older sister came down with a cold, she said to her mother, “Mom, lets spray onion juice on everything!”

So , Vic, I just want to say for all the world to hear -

“Happy Birthday, and I love you !”

I can’t imagine my life without you !