Eric's Final Journey

You may have noticed that all my adventure's involve my husband, Eric. This man has shown me the world, quite literally. He became ill on Christmas Eve 2013. On his 33rd day in the hospital he peacefully left our world. On the 41st day he was taken off of life support. While I had his hand on my chest as it raced in both fear and heartbreak, I had my hand on his chest as I felt his final heartbeat. The man who had given me enough stories to fill several books had left me.

We weren't alone that day. What I didn't realize at the time is that Eric touched a lot of lives. I spent 41 days learning new and wonderful things about my guy from his best friends and co-workers, and this is only from the folks in Dallas. Twelve years together and he still impresses me everyday.

Eric was a very cool and collected guy. Eric and I were kind of secret-dating in the beginning. We eventually got caught because he couldn't stop giving me googly-eyes. We never stopped with the googly-eyes. We held each other everyday. I'd greet him at the door and he'd hold me for a few minutes... then he'd stick his icy hands (or ice pack) on my back! Then he'd hold me some more. He showed me love everyday. Good day, bad day, it didn't matter. He loved me and he always let me know.

Eric had this smile that could melt my heart. He'd look at me like I was the only person in the room. I could be having a crap-tastic day and all he had to do was smile, and I'd forget all about it.

When we argued, which was rare, it would be over quickly and we'd move on. I've never met anyone who could do that. He never held on to anything negative.

If you know me, you know I have some child-like qualities, other than my voice of course. What you may not know, even if you knew him, is that Eric did as well. We own more cartoons and muppet movies than we do anything else. I don't want to embarrass him with too many other details. What matters is that Eric always brought joy and happiness into this household in the simplest ways. Sometimes in really extravagant ways too!

Eric was a very hard worker. Some of you know how much traveling he did to take care of me. Taking care of his family was very important to him. He recently invited his parents to move in so he could do just that. He had some great plans to make them happy. Unfortunately the day we got back from moving them in, is the day we checked him into the emergency room.

His passing was both slow and sudden. We really believed he'd survive this. What a crushing blow for everyone. I know I'm supposed to be happy for him. I should be happy he's in heaven with people he loved and missed but I am greedy and I want him here with me. I want him to try that restaurant he's been waiting months for. I want him to play that game that he's been following for over a year. I want us to take that cruise we were planning for our 10th anniversary. I look around at all the things he still wanted to do and the places he wanted to see and it hurts so badly.

I can go on forever about Eric. I truly love this man. I wish I didn't have to say goodbye. I will, however, be saying goodbye to Texas. I can't be here anymore. I look forward to the day where he greets me again with that beautiful smile, and maybe that blush-inducing wink of his. Then I imagine he will hold me forever.

This is the video that played at Eric's memorial.