Soph. . .

My dear friend, Sophia Staecker, is engaged! She was showing off her engagement ring this morning at church . . . and surprising all of us. I met her fiance a week ago Friday as he and she performed at a coffee house in Keller. He seemed like a really nice fella.. . . kind of a salt-of-the-earth person. They make sweet music together. The wedding date is June 7. I hope she will be happy-happy. She deserves to be. She took care of her late husband, Scottie, for over twenty years. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in '83. They had been married just 6 years (I think) when his mind started playing tricks on him. Sophie stayed true to him all those years. She couldn't find any support groups for wives like her because most women don't stay with such mentally disabled spouses. Sophie, the exception, should write a book about what 'for better or worse' really means.

Congratulations, Soph!