Ramón would have turned 46 today.
This morning, as I tried to think of a photo to share in honor of his big day, this one came to mind. We’d just purchased a nice camera to take on our upcoming cross-country RV trip. When I took this photo, I was playing around with the camera settings, and he was eating, per usual.
About a year later, I was uncomfortably lying on the hospital-couch-bed-thing, unable to sleep. My mind was racing, but my heart was full of gratitude as I thought about the various forms of kindness we’d been shown in the weeks since Ramón’s leukemia diagnosis. So, in the wee hours of the morning, I designed thank you cards online.
I used this photo as the image for a card that read “We scream THANK YOU!” with our names below it. How clever was I? I ordered 250 cards.
A few days later, Ramón and I were up to our usual hospital shenanigans when I turned to him.
“Oh my gosh. I think I spelled your name wrong on the thank you cards,” I said.
He stared at me.
“I think I put an accent mark over the ‘a,’ not the ‘o.’”
He shook his head. “You don’t even know my name.”
I hopped online to review the proof and, sure enough, 250 cards signed by me and Rámon—not Ramón—were en route. Whoops.
If you think that stopped me from personalizing the cards and sending them all over the nation, you’re wrong. I just added a sticker acknowledging my mistake: “Bláme it on the cáncer.”
Happy birthday, Ramón!
The world was lucky to have you for the 15,051 days you graced this planet. And I am still overjoyed to have spent 3,136 of them with you.
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