Afterword

LeRoy and Paula slow dancing at a recent wedding reception in their backyard. 

Photo by

  
Krizan Photography  

Written by 
LeRoy Walls 
CEO 

Paula is proud of my verse to her which appropriately depicts her as a Cabool piano accompanist and also as my accompanist in life. She had it framed and proudly displays it on a wall in our family room.

She took this past summer off from work at Woodpro. She’s quite busy looking after five of our grandchildren who live in Cabool. The other three grandchildren live in the Kansas City area. On afternoons when a friend took all the five grandchildren swimming, Paula had even a little time to herself. It turns out that she’s had way too much time!

Recently after a day or two when our conversations were noticeably cool as if I’d done something wrong and she was giving me time to discover it on my own and redeem myself - I got a letter from her. And in case that wasn’t frightening enough she then said, "You should read this and later we need to talk."

From her tone I knew that this was serious business, so fortunately I didn’t make any of my usual dumb remarks. As soon as she left the room, I picked up the letter and was pleased that it was addressed to me rather than "John." None of the concepts she first outlined were any real surprise to me. The shocker to me was a little phrase near the end about being "partners." At first this had a nice sound to it, and I felt all warm (and fuzzier than usual) thinking about Paula helping me with the horses and farm chores here at our home on Highland Ridge. But reading on and in later discussions I came to a gut level understanding that she was absolutely serious about a promotion from "accompanist" to co-captain. I then did what I suppose any red-blooded American male would do as I thought of this possibility - I literally shook in my boots. This was obviously a much bigger step than changing our telephone listing from LeRoy Walls to LeRoy and Paula Walls, which fortunately I did several years ago.

So, I’ve been re-reading my most helpful book on marriage. Its a little book by Dr. Paul Tournier called, "To Understand Each Other." But what I’m really concentrating on now is another great book on "A search for the ingredients of a Lifetime Partnership" titled "Long Term Marriage" by Floyd and Harriett Thatcher.

I believe that Paula and I are both committed to making our partnership work. If anyone should ask, "LeRoy, what’s new in your life?" The short answer of "Paula" is just as appropriate now as it was in 1965 when we were first married. And while my life still needs more adjustment, I believe that my life (and Paula’s) will continue to be quite interesting.

Stay tuned!

12/31/1999