Emotional tribute of 'To Joey, With Love' provides challenge to the faithful

I should have taken a handkerchief when I saw “To Joey, With Love” Tuesday night.
 

I knew the movie would be a sad story, but I pride myself in being a tough guy who rarely sheds tears. As I watched the story chronicling the final two years of country singer Joey Feek’s life, I wanted to cry.

My wife, Stephanie, could not hold back the tears as we watched the film, which was created, written and directed by Rory Feek as a tribute to his wife, who died in March after a courageous battle against cancer.

The husband-wife team had become extremely popular with their mix of classic and modern country along with a down-to-earth persona showcased on their successful cable TV show.

At the height of their success, they decided to take a year off from traveling while Joey had the couple’s first child. They would document it on film.

Little did they know what was ahead.

The baby girl was born with Down’s Syndrome. The family quickly accepted that the child, named “Indiana” after Joey’s home state, was the one God wanted them to have. 

At her 12-week checkup after giving birth, the doctors found that Joey had an abnormality which turned out to be cervical cancer. After surgery and aggressive treatment, doctors declared Joey to be cancer-free only to have the dreaded disease return in 2015. Despite more surgeries and treatment, the cancer could not be contained.

Joey and Rory went to live life to the fullest in the time she had left. 

Watching Joey’s physical decline on film could only make one wonder how he would respond if placed in that situation.

The story that began with Joey giving a life took the most dramatic turn possible and continues today, even after her death. That is what a true witness is.

It’s more than singing a song or wearing a big smile. It’s knowing one’s eternity has been sealed by Jesus Christ.

I accidentally became a fan of Joey and Rory several years back. I’d been watching The Marty Stuart Show on RFD-TV and somehow had been distracted toward the end of the show and left the room. When I returned to the couch, Joey and Rory had come on. I was immediately hooked on their music and their unwavering devotion to Jesus Christ.

I told my wife to check them out and she was quickly a bigger fan than me. The just seemed like genuine people, thankful for what they had accomplished and giving God the glory for everything.

We regret we had a scheduling conflict the last time Joey and Rory performed at Renfro Valley, our favorite concert venue. Very soon after that show last September, the couple stopped touring.

Their witness, however will remain strong through their music.

The film, which is being shown on a limited basis, can only enhance that outreach.

As the crowd slowly filed out of the theater, the sounds were few. A few sniffles here. Some whispers there.

I wonder how many were thinking the same as me: Is my faith so strong that it will inspire others. Through a time of pain and death, would I, like Joey, be able to sing? Would I be able to smile and encourage others?

Her voice was weakened, but still distinct.

When peace like a river attendeth my way

When sorrows like sea billows roll

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say

It is well, it is well with my soul

Thank you Joey for your powerful witness.

Thank you Rory, for a wonderful celebration of her life.

And for making me examine my own life.

Martin Family Circus hitting the right chord

(NOTE: This column appeared in the Aug. 17, 2016 edition of The Anderson News. My wife and I consider Paul and Jamie Martin good friends and we are so happy for them that they are able to sing at the Kentucky State Fair Sunday night.  Most of all, we are inspired by their message of hope through their music.)

The Martin Family Circus at  Middletown, Ky. They are, from left, March, Kell, Tallant, Jamie, Texas (on drums) and Paul.

The Martin Family leads worship at Hendersonville (Tenn.) First Baptist Church on July 31, 2016.

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” I Corinthians 13:13 (NIV).
     There’s little doubt that the Martin Family Circus has scored what might be the prime gig for a group making its own name at the Kentucky State Fair. The Martins, people with strong Kentucky ties, will be opening for The Oak Ridge Boys’ amazingly popular – 41 years and counting – show.
      But there’s more to the Martin Family Circus than just the music. Regardless of one’s musical tastes, the family group plans on making many smiles.
     “Music is a universal language,” says Jamie Martin, who along with her husband, Paul, and their four children, have been wowing audiences since they started performing several years ago. They have a bedrock of faith, hope and love that is apparent every time they sing, whether at their home church, an RECC meeting or Sunday, when they take the stage for what is expected to be their biggest show yet.
     I had the pleasure of meeting Paul and Jamie Martin and their family backstage at Renfro Valley last year.
      I’d known of Paul Martin as he’d been the lead singer with Exile – think of the hit “Keep it in the Middle of the Road” – more than 20 years ago. Most recently he’d been playing bass guitar and bass fiddle for Marty Stuart and The Fabulous Superlatives. I’d also known about Jamie, who is still featured as a backup singer on Country’s Family Reunion on RFD-TV and I knew she was the daughter of the Oak Ridge Boys’ Duane Allen.
      But little did I know that night how good their music would be or that we would strike up a bit of a friendship. And I had no idea just how some people just living what they believe would be an inspiration every time I hear them sing.
      “This was a leap of faith,” Paul says with his trademark smile. He sat in the small studio he owns near Nashville where numerous reminders of the country music giants he has been associated with adorn the walls. There’s Stuart, Exile, The Oaks, Kathy Mattea and more.
      Paul, a Winchester native, credits an old friend, former Anderson County resident Charlie Crowe, for pushing him toward his successful career. The two played together in Crowe’s group, Charlie’s Garage, around Lexington in the early 1980s before Martin went with Exile. Crowe later became one of Nashville’s top musicians as guitarist for Brooks and Dunn.
     “Charlie is the guy who really pumped me up and made me believe in myself,” Paul says.
At home, Paul and Jamie began to believe they had something special musically. They started teaching their children how to sing anything from Hank Williams, Sr., to the Beach Boys to current pop hits to old hymns. The kids demonstrated an uncanny ability to sing harmony.

March, Kell, Tallant and Jamie Martin sing "Mary, Don't You Weep."

      Paul and Jamie dreamed of doing something together as a family with the most basic of reasons. “God has given us talents,” Jamie says. “You have to use them for Him.”
      But there was the issue of having four children but giving up the security of being on stage with Stuart, one of Nashville’s longest-tenured stars. They learned that enormous faith can make what seems crazy become a reality.
      The Martins talked it over with their pastor, who noted that the Martins’ oldest son, March, was 17 at the time. “He said, ‘It looks like your window of opportunity is closing fast,’” Paul says.
     He went to Stuart, with whom he had worked for over a decade. “I said, ‘Marty, I’m not mad. I have just got to do this thing with my family.’”
      The morning after returning home from his final date with Stuart, reality hit. “I woke up that Tuesday morning and said, ‘Here we go,’” Paul says.

Texas Martin sings, while Paul accompanies at their home church.

      The Martin Family Circus has gone from that moment with a message of hope, regardless of the venue. They’ve played churches, community shows and nailed a performance of the National Anthem before 19,000 fans at an Indiana Pacers’ game in February. They pray together before every show, asking that they be a blessing to someone.
      Understandably, the Martins are thrilled to be in Louisville. Not only is Paul, who attended Eastern Kentucky University, a Winchester native, but much of Jamie’s family on her mother’s side is from Bowling Green. For two years, she attended the University of Kentucky, where she worked in athletic director C.M. Newton’s office. The Martins love the Wildcats and Ale-8-One. “We’ve both set tobacco and worked in tobacco,” Jamie laughs.
      Over the years, the Martin kids have been on stage when The Oaks sing one of their huge hits, “Thank God for Kids.” A year ago, the Martins made an impromptu appearance during the state fair show and brought the house down.
      “We are so proud of these four men,” Jamie says. “I mean, seriously: 41 million records sold, more than one million social media followers … 41 years straight headlining the Kentucky State Fair, members of the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Grand Ole Opry, awards too numerous to count, and this is my dad’s 50th year with this group!
      “I’m sure, in his first year of touring with the Oaks, my dad would have never imagined that 50 years later, his opening act would be made up of his children and grandchildren. And we couldn’t be more excited to do this together.”
      The Martin Family Circus aims to uplift people. One of their best-known songs is a rocking cover of Pharell Williams’ “Happy.”
      “Music is my life,” says Paul, “I want the joy of it. If we can feed our family, I want to bring joy to people.”
      “Everywhere we go,” Jamie says, “people come up to us and have a lot going on in their lives. We understand because we have that going on too.”
      And the Martins try to live Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount when he said his people are “the light of the world.”

Texas Martin sings "Happy" at the Ky. State Fair in 2015.

      The light shines through an evening of love. The Martins and their children, March (18), Kell (15), Texas (11) and Tallant (9) perform all the vocals and play all the instruments.
      And The Martins want to make sure their message is clear. One of the cuts on their second album, “Past, Present and Future,” just released last week, is Kell singing, “Precious Lord, Take My Hand.” Another song is one Paul wrote about the Christian life, “Nothing More.”
      He's also written a song about Jamie called, "One Lifetime's Not Enough."
      It’s the Martins’ way of delivering the greatest love message of them all.
      “When we step on the stage, we want the light to shine through us,” Paul says. “People come to us who are not going to church. We always end our sets with gospel. We want to plant a seed.”

Meeting a hero, close to home

Mason Rucker shows me the list of wounded from St. Lo, France in World War II.

It used to be Superman,
Johnny Bench and then George Jones.
But lately I’ve been finding all my heroes
Closer to home.
—The Oak Ridge Boys

I never met Mason Rucker until I was out of college, but he quickly became one of my heroes.

If you ever got to know him, he’d be one of yours too.

Over the years, I’ve been able to talk with members of the basketball, baseball, football and country music Halls of Fame. Posters of some of those people had adorned my wall as I was growing up. Others had been blaring through my stereo speakers as I drove around the countryside.

But unlike my longtime friend, those Hall of Fame heroes had long established their level of greatness long before I had the privilege to talk with them.

Actually, Mason Rucker did too. I just didn’t know it.

Armed with take-on-the-world enthusiasm and a fresh degree from Roanoke Bible College, I accepted the minister’s position at Mt. Eden Christian Church in the fall of 1981. It was my first full-time job and was just a few miles from my Anderson County home.

Mason Rucker with his recently received medals.

I was the young preacher with big dreams. Mr. Rucker was an established man who was known throughout the area as a director at Camp Calvary and for his work with the Salt River Christian Men’s Fellowship.

He was the wise man who’d been through the battles. Literally.

And that’s why he, and so many like him are worthy of any honor that comes their way.

I’d known why Mr. Rucker is a hero nearly 35 years. Not long after I took up residence in Mt. Eden, his son, Eldon, briefly filled me in: Mason’s finger was shot off during World War II and he spent 18 months in Army hospitals. But, I was told, he wouldn’t talk about it.

But after seeing a recent story in The Spencer Magnet about Mason finally getting all of his war medals after waiting more than 70 years, I reached out through a Facebook message to his daughter, Darleen Woods.

“He would love to talk with you,” she said.

And last Saturday, I drove to Taylorsville, where I finally talked with one of my heroes about what made him so special.

“I was just young and scared,” smiled Mr. Rucker, now a remarkably spry 93 years old.

That was undoubtedly a fitting description for most of the hundreds of thousands of young men who had walked on the beaches of Normandy in June, 1944. A private first class, Mr. Rucker set foot in France just after D-Day.

On July 26, near St. Lo, Mr. Rucker and two of his buddies were scouting for a tank when they came under German machine gun fire. A bullet took the pinky finger of Rucker’s right hand and tore through his right arm. The impact left him with shoulder and rib cage pains for some time.

Rucker crawled toward some hedgerows where he could take some cover. On the way, he heard a voice say, “Rucker, if you can make it here, I will pull you over.”

The fire was so intense, he says, “They weren’t about to come over where I was at.”

As he crawled to the hedgerow, his life was spared by mere inches. “I felt a bullet go by my head,” he recalls.

Somehow, Mr. Rucker made to relative safety and was taken to a hospital tent. “I guarantee you there were 35 or 40 in there,” he says.

His buddies were not among those in the tent. Rucker sent letters to them but someone from the Red Cross told him the letters had come back. His buddies made the ultimate sacrifice.

I told Mr. Rucker that I had known a little of his story since those days when I lived in Mt. Eden but was curious as to why he was freely talking now.

“I would talk about it and start crying,” he said.

As we sat in his living room, it was obvious his mind still hurts over what happened that day in 1944, but the determination to make sure today’s generation truly understands the horror of war trumps that pain.

Mr. Rucker was discharged from the hospital at Camp Atterbury, near Columbus, Ind., on Feb. 2, 1946. Waiting to head home was not an option.

Mason and Irene Rucker celebrate 70 years of marriage July 4

“I asked about the bus to Louisville and they said the next one would come through in two hours,” Mr. Rucker says. “I didn’t want to wait, so I went out to the road and hitchhiked.”

He arrived in Louisville in less than two hours and eventually caught a ride to Shelbyville. He met Irene Whitehouse and they will be celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary Monday.

July 4.

But the patriotic hero says there was no red, white and blue significance to the date.

“We just wanted to get married,” he says with a laugh. “I’d seen enough fireworks in France.”

Mr. Rucker settled near Mt. Eden, worked at GE in Louisville, raised a family and loved God and his country.

Earlier this year, a package arrived at his home with the medals commemorating his ordeal. Someone at the Veterans Administration learned that Mr. Rucker had not received his honors and got working on the case.

“A lot of them didn’t get their medals,” said Rucker, whose purple heart signifies being wounded in battle.

But after people started becoming aware of his story, Mr. Rucker says people have told him “Thank you” several times.

I wanted to do the same last Saturday. After all, another of his medals is a Bronze Star, given for heroic actions or achievement.

There aren’t too many heroes like Mason Rucker today. Over 400 World War II survivors are passing every day, according to statistics cited by the World War II Museum. Those still living are in their late 80s and 90s. They saved the world from Adolf Hitler’s madness. They truly are The Greatest Generation.

Thank you, Mason Rucker, for what you gave that day in France.

And thanks to hundreds of others like him whose sacrifices are still being felt today.

'Small Town, Big Heart'

This story appeared in the May 18 edition of The Anderson News.

When she starts singing it's sometimes hard to remember Mikaya Taylor is just completing fifth grade at Robert B. Turner Elementary School.

But the local girl, who has been performing the country and bluegrass music for about a year might be the perfect mix of youthful exuberance and a maturing voice that is turning heads.

“Was your day good today,” Taylor asks with a huge smile.

As she did in November for an interview about her new-found success, Mikaya gives the impression she's a typical, talkative 11-year-old girl.

Until, that is, you push in her new CD.

“Gentle river take me away
to the time of happier days
All I need is love and company
Gentle river bring him back to me.”

The Allison Krauss song is the first of 10 on Mikaya' just-released project. The CD, “Mikaya Taylor: Small Town, Big Heart,” is a collaboration between Mikaya, her mother, Traci Taylor, Old Town Recording Studios of Berea and Blind Dog Studios of Crestwood.

Local musician Kevin Chilton plays banjo on the CD.

The album is a collection of classics including covers of songs by Krauss, Loretta Lynn, Emmylou Harris and Ralph Stanley among others.

Among her favorites is a cover of the Osborne Brothers' bluegrass hit, “Listening to the Rain.”

Mikaya says she has been singing that one just over a month, or just in time to put it on the CD.

“It seemed like everyone kept asking when she would have one. Even the festivals were asking. We decided we had better get one,” Traci Taylor says.

Mikaya is scheduled to sing at the Bardstown Bluegrass Festival and the Festival of the Bluegrass at the Kentucky Horse Park in June. She also has several other dates scheduled.

Since her story first appeared in The Anderson News in December, Mikaya has been an invited guest for a gathering of Tomorrow's Bluegrass Stars in Nashville.

“That was so much fun! I met Nathan Stanley,” she says of the grandson of the bluegrass music legend.

Traci says the trip, which covered four nights, was paid for by some local sponsors.

In the last few months, Mikaya has also gotten a new guitar for Christmas and received a new mandolin as a gift from some members of a Georgia-based group, Recycled Grass.

All the while, Mikaya was working toward her new CD, which was recorded over 17 hours in three sessions from April 10-30.

“It was fun!” Mikaya says with a giggle. “I only messed up once. It was hard to do because the band had never played together.”

In addition to Chilton, band members on the CD include musicians who have worked with bluegrass legends like Bobby Osborne and J.D. Crowe.

And listening to the CD, one can understand why Mikaya's mom says, “Her voice has changed. It has gotten so much more mature.”

Mikaya's calendar has begun to be a bit more busy with bookings, many being around Lawrenceburg, but she has also been contacted about appearing at many area venues, including the Capital City Opry in Frankfort.

Mikaya's success also led to a bit of celebrity status at Turner Elementary. “(Principal Wayne) Reese started telling some of the teachers, they told some other teachers and they told some of the kids,” Mikaya laughs.

“Now some of the kids want her CD,” Traci smiles. “Her school work comes first. That is why I don't book her too much.”

Currently, Mikaya doesn't have her own band, something her mother is pursuing.

But even with her maturing voice, Mikaya is still an 11-year-old.

“I want a hoverboard,” she giggles.

It's something not every kid has.

Even fewer have their own CD.

About “Small Town, Big Heart”

Mikaya Taylor's first CD includes several country or bluegrass classics, including covers of Loretta Lynn's “Blue Kentucky Girl” and Dolly Parton's “Jolene.” The CD also has some newer songs such as Darrell Scott's “You'll Never Leave Harlan Alone,” which has been covered by Brad Paisley, among others.

The CD costs $15 each or two for $25. It can be purchased online at mikayataylor.com, messaging Mikaya Taylor on Facebook or by emailing kentuckysingingangel@gmail.com.

Restroom directive greatly impacts sports

This column appeared in the May 18 edition of The Anderson News. 


     I wonder what would happen if sometime during the spring, a thoroughbred horse owner concluded that his prized 3-year-old colt really identified as a filly.
     Could he petition to let his horse run in the Kentucky Oaks or the Black-Eyed-Susans Stakes? Or if he wanted to still run in the Triple Crown races, would he get a 5-pound weight allowance?
     Absurd? Of course, it is.
     But it’s no more absurd than the directive out of Washington last week that could greatly affect sports as we know them.
     While much has been said about President Obama’s administration sending a directive to allow transgender access to bathrooms, the letter sent to school systems across the nation last Friday goes much further than where someone can relieve himself. In the “Dear Colleague” letter, you will find some of the most ridiculous gobbledygook to ever come out of Washington.
     And that is saying something.
     The nine-page document, footnotes and all, can be found online at http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201605-title...
     The portion of the letter most are debating is headed “Restrooms and Locker Rooms.”
     The section says schools may offer separate facilities on the basis of sex, i.e., a boys’ room and a girls’ room, “but must allow transgender students access to such facilities consistent with their gender identity. A school may not require transgender students to use facilities inconsistent with their gender identity or to use individual-user facilities when other students are not required to do so. A school may, however, make individual-user options available to all students who voluntarily seek additional privacy.”
     The letter makes it very clear that “gender identity” is to be equated with “sex.”
     In other words, what you feel is what you are.
     The letter also deals with athletics, saying that schools can sponsor sex-segregated teams but a school can’t “adopt or adhere to requirements that rely on overly broad generalizations or stereotypes about the differences between transgender students and other students of the same sex (i.e., the same gender identity) or others’ discomfort with transgender students.”
     So, what we have to look forward to is a boy who claims he’s a girl demand to join the girls’ basketball team and have access to the locker room.
     Think it can’t happen? Think again.
     Several states already have laws allowing student-athletes to compete based on “gender identity.” While Kentucky has no such law, the Kentucky High School Athletic Association already has a transgender and cross-gender policy.
     Earlier this year, a transgender student at Fremd High School in Illinois won access to the girls’ locker room. According to the “Chicago Tribune,” a large number of parents were predictably upset at the ruling, which was based on an interpretation of the Title IX act of 1972.
     Whether the student was seeking access for gym class or for a scholastic sport does not matter.
     What is so bothersome about the directive is that local officials have often tried to provide accommodations as a compromise.
     Several media colleagues have told me about area schools that have had girls on their football teams in recent years. While that does not mean those girls are identifying as boys, there is a principle in that the schools provided separate dressing room facilities.
     At Anderson County High School, the policy is if someone identifies as a transgender, a private restroom facility is provided.
     But, according to the directive, that’s not good enough. If a biological boy identifies as a girl, he should have the right to the girls’ locker room and vice-versa.
     That is utter insanity.
     From this corner, it is more than just where someone goes to the bathroom. It’s common decency. Gender dysphoria, the clinical term for those who fell they are the opposite sex, is listed as a disorder in psychiatric manuals.
     Do we really want treatment of a disorder by discounting the rights of privacy, modesty and decorum and replace them with social engineering in locker rooms?
     And, of course, if schools don’t allow such nonsense, they risk losing federal funding.
     It is interesting that Johns Hopkins University, a pioneer in performing sex change surgeries, no longer performs them and the longtime psychiatrist in chief there has been a vocal opponent of the surgery for several years. Of course, those who want to promote this discount that information since it doesn’t further the agenda.
     The irony of this nonsense is that while this total rejection of morality affects scholastic sports, the games provide some insight into the fact that the sexes are very different.
     Take basketball where a high school team with a 6-2 center would likely be feared in the girls’ game but draw yawns when the boys take the court. Even the ball the girls use is significantly smaller than the one for the boys. It was a great move as it recognized some differences.
     Or take track and field. Last week, I attended the regional meet and looking at the results, the top girls’ performances would be well back in the standings for the boys. That doesn’t demean the girls or say the boys are superior.
     It does acknowledge there are fundamental biological differences that God created. The emotional differences are just as great.
     Unfortunately, it looks like those in power in Washington and their cronies want to ignore reality.
     My hope for the students, many of them athletes, is that the local school board will have the courage to stand with the many, including Gov. Matt Bevin, around the country against this politically correct nonsense.
     Common decency and morality applies to everything in life.
     Including the sports world.
     Back to that confused thoroughbred. Growing up on a farm, I learned you can alter a colt and it will change his behavior, sometimes dramatically. But it doesn’t make him a filly.

Christian teachers deserve our prayers for their work in a ripe mission field

 When I carried a note pad into the Anderson County High School gym for that first basketball game I covered as a member of the media, I thought I would be writing about sports and talking with sports figures.

What I quickly found out and am reminded of nearly every day is the fact that my writing is usually about people. There have been good people, shady people and people who would fall somewhere in between on the character scale.

And most of those people are teachers. 

My job is with a small-town weekly newspaper. That means I spend a lot of time around high school sports. 

Make that A LOT of time spent with teachers. They might be coaches to most people, but usually, they are people who have what amounts to a second job at the field. During the day, most are teaching history or science or math.

And I see the good ones in action doing what they do best, which is impacting the lives of young people. That's real coaching. It's real teaching.

I see it first hand almost every day. 

My wife, Stephanie, is an elementary school teacher. Just like those good coaches I had watched for years before I met her, I found that her greatest desire is to positively impact young people during the time they are with her. 

From the number of hugs she gets when we are out and about – “That's one of my former students,” she usually says after one of those moments – I would say she is often successful. 

I'm partial to teachers, probably because an aunt spent most of her life educating kids about reading and writing – her specialty – and most importantly about life.

But things have sure changed in the classroom.

For example, when a kid cursed a teacher in my aunt's day the consequences were having a mouth washed with Lava soap or a paddling – or both – along with a conference with a parent who repeated the punishment, now a teacher can talk to a kid or have a conference with a parent, but little else. It's not necessarily a change for the better.

Through my elementary school years, we started the day with a Bible passage and prayer. It was the same for many people I know, but not now.

And while I lament that “secularists” and “progressives” succeeded in removing those precious acts of faith and the heritage of faith in our nation, it is still possible for Christian teachers to be influential in the spiritual lives of children. 

Obviously, teachers can be an example. Over the years, I have had several coaches share their desire to be the light of Christ through their programs. The same can happen in the classroom.

We live in a world where some kids sometimes come to school from homes where one or both parents are on drugs. Kids live in homes where one parent, sometimes both, is missing. I could go on and on  but will refrain. It's depressing enough as it is.

It's why I have often said one of the greatest mission fields in thew world today is the American public school system. 

Let me interject I have nothing but admiration for the many Christian schools in America today. The ones I am familiar with do a marvelous job. But theirs is a different mission and different environment than the public schools. Parents choose to send their children to the private schools where the climate is friendly to Christianity.

Christian public school teachers serve in an environment growing increasingly hostile to Christianity, yet they somehow share the light of Christ the best they can.

Too often, we see stories of public school teachers seemingly in the profession to further a political agenda or more interested in the pay rather than performance. While there are certainly educators who fit those descriptions – I have met several – it is unfair to lump them with those hard-working souls who go above and beyond what should be reasonably expected simply to make the life of a child better.

And there are countless teachers who do that with their commitment to Christ as the blueprint for their mission.

Those people deserve our applause. And our prayers.

No gift is sufficient

Today, March 1, is my wife's birthday. I won't tell you how old she is, nor will I tell you what I got her. I'm just not very good at picking out gifts.

We have sort of an agreement. At least I call it that.
Since I am fashionably-challenged – how is that for a politically correct word – I tell her to please never expect me to buy her a gift of clothing as it will most likely be a) wrong color, b) wrong size, c) wrong fashion or d) all of the above.

The real answer is that I could never, ever give her anything close to what she is worth.

Just recently, I put together a special section in my work at The Anderson News. The occasion was Anderson County High School basketball coach Glen Drury reaching 500 wins in his career. That, in itself, is a huge accomplishment at the high school level, where seasons are much shorter than the colleges and pros. The fact that he did it all in one place is almost unheard of. But because it was such a big deal, it was decided to give that 500^th win some special treatment.

I contacted several former players and coaches in the area for comment. One constant that kept coming up was the importance of a great family that understands the time demands and unique characteristics of the job.

And it made me think of my own life of long trips to some small town in the middle of nowhere, too much fast food and too many late nights to get the job done. Without a special person, it wouldn't happen.

Saying that Stephanie is special is a major league understatement. There are many times when I ask myself what she saw in me.

But I am glad she saw what she did.

We are both old school to varying degrees, but we met online. Really, we did.

Both of us had been divorced and we had some of the same fears of our relationship but soon realized we were usually on the same page.

We had numerous mutual friends and one of them, my high school basketball coach, Wayne King, had a part in our wedding.

Over the years, we have become a team. Instead of staying at home when I have game nights, Stephanie decided to come along with me. She's been invaluable.
One winter, I developed a blood clot in my leg after a surgical procedure. That was a problem in my work as I am usually standing and taking photos at ball games. Hiring a photographer would not have been economically feasible, although I used a free lancer on occasion. The answer was I taught Stephanie how to use a camera.

She eventually became proficient enough to have one of her photos published on the worldwide Little League website.

And because of the fact that I am hearing impaired, she often listens in to interviews, especially those taped in places with much background noise.

I really don't know what I would do without her.

My work can be fun. When I have branched out from sports writing, Stephanie has been there with me as I interviewed Country Music Hall of Famers Duane Allen and Joe Bonsall of The Oak Ridge Boys, TV personality and comedian Tim Lovelace and she's opened our home to rising country singer J.D. Shelburne. Through my work we got to meet one of our favorite musicians, Paul Martin, and his delightful family, the Martin Family Circus.

But something tells me she would be just as happy attending a high school softball game as she would sitting on press row at Rupp Arena or sitting backstage before a concert.

Happy Birthday, Steph. It's been a crazy and incredible 10 years together. I can't wait to see what is in store for the future.

And I hope you like your birthday present, even though it can't come close to saying what I want. So this will have to suffice.
You really are the best.