Ron and I were able to celebrate eleven wedding anniversaries. I am thankful for every one of those years, but I must confess that we had plans for many more. Ron and I dreamed about many things we wanted to do:

• He often talked about the two of taking a trip to Hawaii. He had been there multiple times, including twice with the U.S. Navy. But Ron’s niece and her family live there, and he wanted to take me there.
• We both longed to go back to Wyoming, where we went on our honeymoon. We took a belated one, six months after we were married so that we could enjoy summer rather than winter weather. It was perfect.

• He used to talk about taking me to Hong Kong, a place he had had fun visiting years ago, again, trips made courtesy of the U.S. Navy.
• I’ve lived and worked in Switzerland and have traveled four times seeing many places in Europe. But Ron discovered that I had never been to Italy. He had visited Rome with some priest friends and loved it. He often talked about us going there.

Ronnie and I saw many of our dreams come true – both large and small. As much as Ron considered Arizona home, he had a strong desire to get me back to my home state of Ohio, where I was raised and went to college and where my brothers and cousins and many friends of long standing live. Bless him, we accomplished that in 2018. We moved into an 1855 beauty, which is Ronnie’s and my last home.

Like many beautiful things, our home has some odd bits as well. At the top of the back stairs is a room that is like a huge landing measuring about 12 by 16 feet. Because of its location, we can’t turn it into a bedroom. So, at Ron’s suggestion, we created a theater with TV, movie pictures, etc. Ron proposed that we name it after The Rialto Theatre in Tucson, Arizona.

He participated in the decorating of it – complete with two of his western paintings, and an autographed picture of his hero, John Wayne, that we found on our honeymoon. From that start, Ron and I added many framed images from movies we love and enjoy. I hung three more pictures Sunday morning before church. I sure wish my Ron could have seen them, but I have no doubt he would have approved. We had good times hanging out in our Rialto Theatre!