Some might think that the amount of time that I knew Marilyn before we got married was a short time, and it was. But it wasn't short because we should have delayed our wedding, it was short because we didn't meet each other sooner. Now I know that circumstances couldn't have been changed in any way to allow that earlier meeting and any change in circumstances would have more easily caused us to miss meeting each other at all.
But, amazingly in the short time between my profession of love and our marriage, I was involved as an usher in a wedding for a couple from work. Their wedding was a rather low key affair which is memorable to me for only two reasons: they wrote their own marriage vows, which I found to be particularly weak promising to remain married only "as long as [they] both shall love;" and an equally low key rehearsal dinner at a non-descript Columbus restaurant. (Indeed, I heard they were divorced shortly after their marriage.)
It was their rehearsal dinner that gave me insight into a Marilyn that I could only grow to love more and more each day. After some beer and I can't remember what to eat, I was leaning over to murmur, "I love you," in Marilyn's ear. Instead, I burped. Marilyn knew what I was trying to do and from then on she always interpreted my unintentional burps as an "I love you."
I always claimed that all of my burps were unintentional but she had a more discerning ear.
Marilyn lost her life to cancer but was able to truly "live" until the very end due to a lymphedema garment from Don Kellogg, inventor and founder of Telesto-Medtech. It is due to the "living" he provided Marilyn and through his suggestion and connection with Saskia Thiadens of the National Lymphedema Network that the Marilyn Westbrook Garment Fund exists. It needs other people's help to remain a living memorial of Marilyn. Please help other people receive the gift of living by donating to the Marilyn Westbrook Garment Fund. Thank you.
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