Goodbye to my motivator
Do you remember “Someone Saved My Life Tonight,” Elton John's 1975 Song?
My late wife, Carolyn Gaub, didn't save my life. She did, however, save me from the doldrums of big corporate life and the anonymity, the worker-bee mentality, it too often breeds. I've mentioned a key event before, the February 2013 public radio news program segment about the death of Jim Muri. And how, when I wondered out loud whether Mr. Mori was related to people with the same last name I knew growing up in Miles City, Montana, Carolyn quickly said, “there's your book."
Her motivational words resulted in my book, “Midway Bravery.” Although I must add that wasn't the immediate result. I continued working in the trenches, so to speak, for four more years. Along the way, I managed to write and publish another book, the central idea of which spoke to me.
Finally, in June this year, the Midway book came out. And today, following Saturday's (September 14) memorial service to honor Carolyn's life of service as a school librarian and teacher, it's fitting to again say thank you to the finest life partner I could have imagined. And to tell her I love her beyond measure.
Also, to family members and friends including former work eolleage. who attended the memorial, please accept my gratitude for your kind words of support. Or even a look or smile that meant much.
It's said that memorial services and funerals serve as much to comfort and offer solace to the living as they function to honor the life of someone who has passed on. All true.
I may not be able to express Carolyn’s lasting gift to me better than what Sylvia Saadati, Jim Muri's daughter, a primary source for the book and now a close friend, expressed in a Facebook comment.
Writing from Tennessee, Sylvia expressed regret at being unable to attend Carolyn's memorial. Then Sylvia (who lost her husband to Alzheimer’s disease five years ago) said:
“Carolyn's nudge to you as a writer and her willingness to attend our CO (Colorado Springs) MHS (Marauder Historical Society] reunion seems typical of her support for you.
"You have been blessed. I am proud to have met her and consider her a friend. The MT (Montana) Muris owe her a debt of gratitude for urging you to research and write about a piece of their history and of MT's history."
What more can I say ... except thank you, Sylvia, and thanks to you, your brother James, your nephew, Josh, and the rest of your large family for entrusting me with the raw material for my chronicle of a World War II hero pilot.
Of possible interest, here is a link to the video tribute my son created for his mother: https://youtu.be/fE7vZa-D0o8.
Also, a link to the FaceBook Live video of the memorial service: https://www.facebook.com/dwgaub/videos/1006420566359076/
