Jack.

A few weeks ago, during a UU service, we were asked to talk with someone we did not know and ask them about the best part of their Christmas.


Being in a bit of an introverted mood that Sunday, I was not hugely excited about the exercise but turned around and started talking with Jack, an older gentleman with twinkly eyes.


Jack told me about having spent time with some friends, this past Christmas, and about having celebrated the memory of his wife who had died in September.


Before I could say anything, he added that "he was fine about it, now." He then explained to me that his wife had been sick for the past twelve years and that he had cared for her until the end. 


Then he said: "We were married for sixty-eight years." 


Sixty-eight years. 


Suddenly filled with all kinds of feelings, my mind was trying to wrap itself around that number. 


Something did not add up. 


How could Jack have been married for sixty-eight years? 


My confusion at the impossible math preventing me from being really present, I decided to ask. 


"How could you have been married for sixty-eight years?"


To which Jack answered: "Well,  I am ninety-two years old." 


Holy moly. 


All of a sudden, I could feel a flood of questions coming up. All of them adding up to this one: HOW???


As I now scrutinized Jacks bright eyes (no glasses), fully sharp mind and smooth skin I knew I was in the presence of the answers to important questions. 


Questions which had been taking more and more room in the last few years. 


But it was time for the service to resume and so there I was, my hear filled to the rim with thoughts of love, of life ... and of Jack.