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The
major resource and inspiration for everything I've ever written is my
wonderful family. This family photo was taken on Easter 2005. There you see me
and Willie, both of our kids, Eric and Amy, and six of our seven
grandchildren. Also able to make the shoot were my wonderful
stepmother, Betsy, my wonderful mother-in-law, Wilma (deceased in
October 2005), my sister Janet's wonderful husband Tom, my brother
Monte and his wonderful wife Diane, and my wonderful brother-in-law
Bill.
How Willie
and I became a couple: In September of 1967, Wilma (not yet Willie) was
one of 1000 or so students who came to hear my band play at Western
Illinois University. In that particular five-some, I played rhythm
guitar and sang lead, no small trick for someone who has trouble
chewing gum and walking a straight line at the same time. About halfway
through our last set, I noticed this "chick" (excuse me, but that's
what we called women then) looking at me. No, staring at me. I started
playing eye games with her, and she played right back. Now, this is the
absolute truth: After the gig, I put up my guitar, turned around, and
she was gone! I went back to my dorm room and lay awake trying to
remember who she was standing near so I could perhaps find out who she
was. She tells me she went back to her dorm room, found out my name,
looked me up in the student directory, and decided right then and there
that she wanted to be Wilma Rosemond. She liked my last name, it seems.
She manipulated an introduction the next day, and it was LOVE at first
meeting!!! We were married 10 months later and as of July 21, 2008, we
will have been married 40 years, and every year has been better than
the last.
Eric
is 39 (at this writing -- Janurary 2008). He runs the aviation
department and flies corporate jets for a local corporation. He and his
wife Nancy live in Gastonia, about five miles from us, with their four
boys, Jack, Patrick, Thomas, and sweet baby James.
Amy
is 35. She is a homemaker and lives in Matthews, NC, about 40 minutes
from us, with her husband Marshall and their three children -- two boys
- Connor and Holden - and a girl - Anna Caitlin - who will rule.
I'm
"Bobo," by the way, which is how I've always, since I was born, been
known to friends and family. My Mom called me the "the Bobo" before I
was born. Tidbit: Charlton Heston and his wife-for-life Lydia visited
my Mom and me in the hospital on the third day of my out of womb life
(they worked with my parents in community theater in Asheville, NC) and
gave me a little blue rubber elephant, a harbinger of things to come.
While
on vacation on a remote island in the Bahamas in 1991, Willie and I
stumbled across a cottage that was for sale. It was in bad need of
repair, but the price was irresistible so we bought it. We've spent the
last 14 years fixing it up, converting an outbuilding to a guest
cottage, converting an open boat shed to a garage, landscaping,
building walls, and so on. In the process, I've learned basic
carpentry, wiring, plumbing, and have far more tolerance for
frustration than ever before, which is good, given that the nearest
Home Depot is 250 miles away. The island, which Jimmy Buffet says is
one of his favorite places in the world, is but one mile square (that's
a stretch), with a permanent population of approximately 65. Once a
week, if it's not broken down, the "mail boat"--a small
freighter--comes through from Nassau, bringing us supplies. Willie and
I spend most of our spare time there, generally December through
mid-January and mid-May through June, albeit I do come off island to do
an occasional "can't pass up" speaking engagement. Our hopes are to
eventually live there 6-9 months a year, but that's a ways off.
Back
in Gastonia, Willie and I recently completed construction on a
garage/home office, where you can sometimes find me at 2 a.m.,
insomniac that I usually am.
If
you're interested in more information about the possibility of having
me come to your community for a speaking engagement, call Elizabeth
Stevens at 919.403.8712.
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