Saturday, June 11, 2022

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, HEIDI

YOU HAVE HAD MY BACK FOR MORE THAN A THIRD OF A CENTURY

Sometimes love is expressed with the good times – an amazing meal, a stroll through a beautiful European capital city, a shopping trip to splurge on rare luxury.

Other times, it is expressed through love, support, having your partner’s back in the most anguished and challenging of times.

I love my bride of 34 years, Heidi Johnson-Wright, for thousands of reasons.

During a recent solo lecture tour in Europe, she proved why she’s been my soulmate of more than a third of a century.

Unfortunately, it was for the latter expression of love and support.

I was hustling to change from the RER train for Charles de Gaulle Airport to the Metro M6 to reach my hotel on Place Italie.

A trio of men, all less than half my age, crash into me just as the subway doors are closing.

I bash my head on one the polls for standing riders to grasp and fall forward.

Even though I was blindsided and injured, my only thoughts were on the wallet I neglected to hide in my book bag. It was gone along with a lot of cash, all my credit cards and other key documents.

Waiting a few hours to get an English-speaking detective at a Paris Police station, I called my indefatigable wife back in Miami and she assisted with canceling credit cards and closing a now exposed bank account.

Heidi is the point person for all things under the Americans with Disabilities Act in Miami-Dade County and oversees several employees and assists dozens of ADA coordinators in myriad departments.

She is a very busy person, but took the day off to help me.

She wired Euros to a Western Union near my hotel.

She added me as a cardholder on one of her credit cards.

She reminded me to put her card on my phone’s wallet app, so I could pay without the confusion of lacking a physical credit card in hand.

She closed a compromised joint checking account and started a new one.

When I returned from working in Paris, Lyon and beyond – Heidi had one neat envelope full of fraud squad correspondence, new credit cards and other important documents such as a temporary medical ID card to replace the stolen one.

We celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary yesterday.

Knowing after all these years, that Heidi has my back in a time of crises – makes me love her even more.



  

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