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Beth's Amazing Journey #2

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I began working for a Christian television station in Chicago in August of 1978. It was called WCFC-TV, Channel 38. Our studio was located on the top floor of the Civic Opera Building on the corner of Wacker and Madison in downtown Chicago. Living in Lisle, Illinois a western suburb of Chicago, I rode the train into the city every day. I usually caught an early afternoon train into the city since I worked on a live program every evening as a floor director and cameraman.

On September 21, 1978 I had no idea that my usual train ride was going to change the direction of my life forever. I was reading a college textbook about television production. When the train stopped at Downer’s Grove, I noticed an attractive young lady walk past me and then sit down directly in front of me. As the train pulled away, I kept looking at her window to try to catch a reflection of her face. Finally, after about ten minutes I tapped her on the shoulder and told her the book I was reading was really boring. I then asked if she would mind if I joined her. She had the most beautiful smile and her eyes lit up as she said “sure!” I instantly felt like I had known her all my life. We talked the entire way into Chicago and as we started walking off the train I asked her where she worked. When she said, “the Civic Opera building on the corner of Wacker and Madison!” I couldn’t believe it. What were the odds that we worked in the same building?

As we walked through downtown Chicago I kept thinking that I wanted to just keep this conversation going. When we arrived at our building I told her I had some time before I had to be in the studio and asked if she wanted to grab a quick bite in the cafeteria on the third floor. Again, she smiled, her eyes lit up and she said, “sure!” This was my lucky day! We went through the line and got our food at the cafeteria and I went into my pockets looking for money, then my briefcase and finally my wallet. I did not have a penny on me! Talk about embarrassing and humiliating! She laughed it off and said, “no problem.” I used to tell people that she paid for the first date but I have been paying ever since. But the truth is I owe her so much for all she did for me. She later admitted that she wondered if this was a trick that I pulled just to get free food. I called her office later that afternoon and asked if I could take her to lunch the next day. That was of course if I could dig up some money. Fortunately for me, she once again said, “sure!”

And so our great love affair began. I really looked forward to going to work every day with the hope I would see Beth at some point (and that seemed to happen more and more.) By the way, I did take her out to a nice Italian restaurant the next day and I did scrape together enough money to pay for it!

I didn’t have much money in those days and after a nice lunch like that, I had to watch my pennies in order to make it to the next paycheck. It was worth every penny and more.

The week that Beth passed away, I shared a story with my brother-in- law Ronn (the pastor who married us and spoke at her funeral, which we called a “Celebration of Beth’s Life”.) I told him about a time we attended a wedding of one of Beth’s friends in our late 20’s. We were having a great time with several friends at the reception dinner. Beth, however, noticed a man who appeared to be about eighty years old sitting all alone. She asked everyone at the table if she could ask him to join us and everyone said, “yes”. She made him feel instantly at home and he had the time of his life. That was when I knew this was the woman I wanted to marry.

Beth had an amazing capacity to love and she had a tremendous ability to make you instantly feel at home when you first met her. Many people have told me that they felt like they had known Beth all of their life the instant she said hello. She loved people unconditionally and she made everyone feel as if they were the most important person on the planet.

I’ll never forget the first meeting with the surgeon after Beth’s surgery in November of 2012. He informed us that she had stage IV Endometrial cancer. Even though he had performed a totally hysterectomy the cancer had spread throughout her abdomen. Our only course was chemotherapy and we would begin treatments the first week of January 2013.

I had a week off after Christmas so on the way home from downtown Philadelphia I suggested that we take our daughters, our son–in-law, Jeff and our grandson Cole (who was three at the time) to Disney World. The doctor and nurses thought that was a great idea to go before she began chemo. I booked us into the Polynesian Hotel at Disney and flew us first class. I wanted this trip to be perfect.

As a QVC host, I am often recognized in airports. As we checked in at the Philly airport for our flight to Orlando the ticket agent recognized me and started asking me several questions about QVC, other hosts, the job, etc. After all of our bags went on the carousel she still had a claim tag in her hand and I said, “please go check the bags, you must have sent one to the wrong city.” She ran back but it was too late. When we arrived in Orlando we discovered that the suitcase that was missing was Beth’s. She had all of her medications in it. As it turned out, her bag arrived the next afternoon and we had a wonderful time. When I returned to work I had a message from the ticket agent on my QVC Facebook page. She apologized profusely. The poor woman felt like she ruined our trip. I assured her that everything turned out fine and not to worry another minute.

The next week her chemotherapy treatments started. Beth went into it with a positive attitude and lots of prayer. After the first treatment, we learned that when she had chemo on Thursday it usually started to hit her by Saturday afternoon. She then felt horrible until Tuesday. She would feel ok for two days and then we had to go back on Thursday and do it all over again. She handled it all so courageously and graciously. The hardest part for Beth, as I’m sure it is for everyone who does chemotherapy, was when her hair started falling out in clumps. I remember the day she decided to have her hair stylist shave her head. She said it felt empowering.