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Her cooking was a little different to him at first, but she could cook and he grew to like what she made. He would often sit and watch her as she used a fingertip to tell how much water she'd put in a pot, or held her hand over a heating pan to tell her if the temperature was right.

It seemed to Mack that Valerie had a method to do anything she needed to do. It wasn't usually the way a sighted woman would do it, but it worked for her.

He joined the American Legion and served on their color guard. Valerie was leery about going with him to some of the events, and some of the other wives were a little hesitant to talk with her. After they got to know Valerie, they realized she wasn't that much different from them, and encouraged her to join the American Legion Auxiliary. She did and began volunteering a few hours a month to work with veterans who had lost their sight due to battle injuries.

Mack was really worried when she told him she was pregnant. They'd had a discussion about children and she'd assured him many blind women had raised children. He was nervous until she told him the news. Then he was ready to panic. Valerie calmed him down.

"The school I went to has night classes to teach you about taking care of babies. I'll go take the classes, and Mom will help me too. Don't worry, I'll be fine and so will the baby.

Valerie was good to her word. She raised their son and two daughters to grow up and be polite, caring, and to be concerned about the feelings of others. Valerie loved them to death but she wouldn't tolerate any disobedience or back talk. More than once, Mack came home from work to find them sitting at a chair at the kitchen table looking glum while Valerie fixed dinner. He'd ask what they'd done. They always answered truthfully, because they knew they wouldn't be allowed to play after dinner if they lied.

When they grew up, they often joked about how they'd tried to trick her but she always saw through the trick. They said the eyes in the front of her head might not work, but the eyes in the back more than made up for it.

Valerie would just smile.

"Mother's always know what their children are doing. They don't have to see them doing something wrong to know they are. They feel it. It's just how mother's are."

After the last child finished college, Mack started saving money for retirement. His supervisors had been impressed with his service in the Marines and the rank he'd earned, and within ten years, he'd been promoted to foreman and two years later to department supervisor. After another fifteen, he was an operations manager. He made the decision the day he turned sixty-five. Their house was paid for and they had no other debt. He'd saved as much as he could so their bank account was in good shape. When he compared his salary to his pension and interest from his savings, he decided he was working for almost nothing so he handed in his letter.

The summer after he retired, Valerie was making dinner one night. Mack walked up behind her, cupped her full hips, and squeezed.

"Wanna go somewhere and mess around?"

"No. If we do, the roast will burn. Besides, what you're squeezing is too big for messing around anymore."

Mack chuckled.

"I like your butt. Besides, I wasn't talking about here in Louisville. I was talking about a place you once told me you wanted to go."

"I've told you I wanted to go a lot of places. We've already been to most of them."

"I was going to surprise you on your birthday, but I can't wait. I stopped by a travel agent today. The Saturday after your birthday, we're going to fly to Hawaii for a week."

Valerie turned around and Mack saw a tear stream down her cheek.

"Will we go to Pearl Harbor to the cemetery?"

"That's the first place we'll go, and we'll go back just as often as you want."

Two weeks later, Mack led Valerie up to the Honolulu memorial in the Punchbowl Cemetery. Valerie was on his right arm. In his left was a bouquet of flowers and a flower stand.

"Valerie, this is the Honolulu memorial. It was built to honor the men who lost their lives in the Pacific during World War Two. It has a statue of Lady Liberty standing in the bow of a ship. According to the guidebook, she represents motherhood. I don't think you can reach high enough to touch her, but there are some words on the steps. You can feel those.

Valerie held his arm for support as she knelt down and brushed her fingers over the engraved letters on the bottom step.

"What does it say", she asked.

Mack cleared his throat because he'd already read the words and was becoming more than a little choked up.

"They say, 'In these gardens are recorded the names of Americans who gave their lives in the service of their country and whose earthly resting place is known only to God.' The guide book says on each side are walls with the names of men who died during the war but were never found. On the top step are more words. Those say, 'The solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom'. The guide book says Abraham Lincoln said that in a letter to a woman who lost her sons in the Civil War."

Valerie stood up.

"I hear other people beside us. What are they looking at?"

"There are two marble walls. On this one that faces some of the graves are two writings. The first says, 'This memorial has been erected by the United States Of America in proud and grateful memory of her soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen who laid down their lives in all quarters of the earth that other peoples might be freed from oppression'. Beside that it says, 'In 1923 the congress of the United States created the American Battle Monuments Commission to worthily honor her sons who paid the last sacrifice in the service of their country on foreign soil. Let us here highly resolve that these honored dead shall not have died in vain'.

"There's also a quote from Admiral Nimitz that says, 'Names that are a cross section of democracy. They fought together as brothers in arms, they died together, and now they sleep side by side. To them we have a solemn obligation to ensure that their sacrifice will help to make a better and safer world in which to live.'"

Valerie sniffed and wiped her eyes with a handkerchief.

"I think Daddy would be proud to be here. How do we find his grave?"

"I wrote to them a month ago and they sent me directions. Let's go find it."

They walked down the Memorial Walk and then onto the grass of the cemetery proper. Mack led Valerie down the rows of flat headstones, then down between two of the rows. He stopped then and squeezed Valerie's hand.

"Here it is. Lieutenant George A. Wilson, USN USS West Virginia, 1907 to 1941"

"Let me touch it."

Mack held her arm while Valerie knelt and ran her fingers over the white marble headstone. She stood up and asked Mack if he'd leave her alone for a while.

Mack backed away a few feet. He could see Valerie moving her lips, but couldn't hear what she was saying.

When she waved her hand, Mack walked back to her side and put his arm around her shoulders. Valerie squeezed his hand.

"Can you put the flowers where they should be? I don't know where they go."

Mack took the brass holder with a spike on the bottom and forced it into the ground beside the headstone, then put the flowers in the holder.

"They're there Valerie, just like you wanted. Do you want me to leave you alone for a while more?"

Valerie hooked her arm in his.

"No. I told Daddy everything I wanted to tell him."

"What was that?"

"That I loved him and I wish he hadn't died, but I was proud of him. I also told him about you and me and how we met, and then about how we got married and had our kids. I said he'd be proud of them and that he'd like you a lot."

"I'm sure he'd be proud of you too, Valerie. I know it's been hard sometimes, but you never gave up. You made a good home for us and we have three kids who grew up to be good people. That was all you, you know."

"No...without you as their dad, they wouldn't have turned out that way. Without you as a husband, I probably wouldn't have turned out like I have either. Thank you for bringing me here. I never got to say good bye to Daddy, and now I have."

"So, are you ready to go back to the hotel?"

Valerie grinned.

"Are we going to do that messing around you talked about?"

"I thought we might have dinner and then go dancing for a while first."

"Like we used to?"

"Well, I won't have to leave you at your mother's house afterward, but yes."

"I brought a nice dress just in case. You'll have to zip me up though."

"I'll zip you up, and then when we come back to the hotel, I'll un-zip you right into bed."

Valerie giggled.

"Do you think after all these years you've figured out how to do it right?"

"Well, I don't know. We might have to practice some."