The LOML (love of my life), POSSLQ (Person of opposite sex sharing living quarters), YANG, TWIN from different mothers, Phil, was capable of ANYTHING!

He buzzed through all the New York Times crossword puzzle compilation books in record time. He built a barn with his bare chucklesome oversized hands. He played the trumpet, his embouchure guaranteeing his excellent skills as a kisser. He cooked, usually with indecent amounts of butter. He skied like Jean Claude Killy. He raced down steep mountains on motorcycles, once with a broken clavicle. He fell off a ladder at a construction site and lived. He broke a foot by kicking a cow, infuriated by her kicking him first. He read EVERYTHING, from Dostoevsky to Irving. He loved Richard Petty as equally as Elmo.

Every day that I spent with my husband, I LEARNED something new. I learned A1 in a military context meant A-One, Available immediately for military service, NOT pronounced “AY-OWN-KNEE.”

He was a walking collection of factoids and real information. I was in awe of him. I asked him so many times, “How do you know that?”

He had a wealth of brainy stuff as well as practical abilities, like fixing the brakes on a car, calculating the load of steel beams, or changing a baby’s diaper.

One thing he didn’t know how to do is cure cancer. Not for himself.