August 26 was our 55th wedding anniversary. I spent the day thinking of Tom, missing him and loving him. I went to the Temple and to then to the cemetery. Oh, how my heart aches for him but I also realize that he is still very much in my life and not far away. It is a complex yet dual aspect of my life at this moment. He has spent a lifetime making sure I was loved and cared for and that mission seems to be carrying on. One thing he consistently did throughout our relationship was COME FOR ME. I learned that, if I remained in place or on course, he would seek me out, return for me or show up for me. Let me give a few examples. When he received his mustang car for his 16th birthday, he soon after found Joanne and I at a church activity and took us for a ride. A few months after that, when I realized he was showing an interest in me, I was still just 14 years old. I could not date but he would claim me at dances and find ways to express his feelings. On my 15th birthday, March 16, 1965, I was starring as the lead dancer in our Junior High play “Ali Babba and the Forty Theives”. He turned up with his friend Peter to see the production. That summer, I was 15 and just graduating from Junior High. My family was spending our annual holiday time in Penticton and Tom convinced his father to let him take their waterski boat, his brother Wayne and young visitor Bobby Gay to the Okanagan to join us for a few days. He was 17 at the time or just turned 17. During his mission to France and Switzerland, his family moved down to the USA for his mother to get her doctorate degree and my family were transferred to Vancouver. I was attending UBC. He returned home to his family for Christmas 1969 and the entire extended Tanner family went to Hawaii to celebrate his grandparents 50th Wedding Anniversary. He asked permission to leave early and fly to Vancouver to pick me up and fly on to Calgary to celebrate New Years together. When his plane landed in Vancouver, he ran to one end of the plane to make sure he would be first off, only to find that they were disembarking from the door at the other end of the plane and he was now last in line. I could see him through the arrival doors rushing to grab his luggage and then hurrying out to find me. At that point I wasn’t hard to see or find. There are numerous stories but let me finish with one. Some years ago I was flying back from Boise and then riding The Quick Shuttle from Seattle to downtown Vancouver where Tom was to pick me. We had crossed the border and made our first Canadian stop at the country store and then on the the airport. As we stopped at the airport, Tom suddenly burst onto the bus and came running down the aisle to retrieve me. Everyone on the bus immediately turned to me as if they knew I was the one he had come to claim. He said he couldn’t wait for me to get to downtown and came to find me. He would go out into the world to work, to serve, to explore but he has always returned to me, to find me, to claim me, to love me. I know he will come for me again. Mary Harvey says that is one reunion she wants to witness. I do not care who else is there as long as when I look up, I see Tom Walker rushing toward me.
Summer has come to an end. After staying with me for a couple of days, Max, Jacqui and Aksel flew home to Australia. Jack and Annika are driving back to Lethbridge after their visit. She will be off to serve her mission in Georgia and Jack back to school. Our USA grandchildren are back at school. I had my friends for a luncheon yesterday to finish off the summer and the sister missionaries, Jean and Cheyenne for dinner. Busy entertaining day.
I felt very loved on our anniversary as our children acknowledged it, as I went to the Temple and felt the love and friendship to be had there and as Tom wrapped his heavenly arms around me.❤️❤️
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