We love the excitement! Congratulations Sarah and thank you for your support.

Rock on – it’s a plan!!

I say have a selling party and then use all the money to max out some IRAs :)

Awwww, well it’s awesome they’re now both together!!

I would have prob done the same thing… well, not in my *safe*, but on the mantle or something :) Woudln’t think I’d have to worry about someone stealing it?! (and of course fires wouldn’t matter much!)

Oh cool, thx man…

Double protection is even better :)

I’ll see if I can get a copy of it for you :)

UPDATE: Here you go! Scanned in copy of the obituary –> Jack William Bullington

And then here is the backstory :)

*****

I am pretty sure I encountered this obituary during a free trial subscription I had to the Seattle Times in college. I loved reading all the sections of the paper and I never skipped the obituaries. But this one – to Jack William Bullington from his wife Gayle – got me right in the feelers and I clipped it to save immediately.

What I love about this obituary is that it is simply an ode to a good husband. We know nothing about where Jack was born, his descendants (if he had any), his civic involvement, education, achievements or what he did for fun, though we can infer that he spent some time in the Navy from the photo his wife chose to feature. We see this departed husband only through the lens of a woman who loved him dearly and who is overwhelmed with gratitude for the 42 years she was given with him on this earth. Does it get any better than that?!

Now here’s where I really get dramatic; I believe the late Mr. Bullington is partly to blame for why I am single today. Because I have kept this obituary for the last 17 years (i.e. most of my adult life!), I have asked myself at various times in my life if I could write such an obituary about whomever I was with at the time. I didn’t just cut and run if the answer was “no,” but Gayle’s ode to her husband has served as quite a powerful litmus test to use for a relationship check-in. I find the notion of “loving with integrity” especially moving, as it is also a challenge for me in terms of how I show up in the lives of those I love (and not just in the romantic sense). So I not only want to find someone who fits this ideal, I want to grow toward it myself.

Since I first read this obituary, I have been married and divorced, with several relationships before and after, none of which passed the “Jack Test.” But I believe there’s a wrench for every nut in this world, even this one, so we’ll see what the future holds!

Anyway, this is why the obituary lives in my fireproof safe now. It represents a dream and a challenge for continued growth. And it’s just so freaking BEAUTIFUL!

No idea what you guys are talking about, haha…