David, tomorrow I will be 70 years old, an age you didn't get to reach. In my mind, you are forever 31 and I am 29...when we met, then married nine months later. David, you will always remain to me, "A Man Among Men, for how you loved me and my children, Scott, Chris, and Colette and, first and foremost, your very own Tina Marie and David John. I remember you telling me how you'd chosen her name, Tina Marie, hoping you'd have a daughter before she was even born. I remember the picture you showed me of you laying on a couch, with your tiny newborn, Tina Marie, sprawled on your chest. I remember the pictures you showed me of you and DJ on Grandma Irene's lawn on Evanswood. You showed me those pictures of you being a father who loved his children very early on after we'd met and how very much they meant to you. So I knew, David, one thing for certain, that you loved your children above and beyond and would never abandon them. If it had been otherwise, I'd never have trusted you. Perhaps, like my own bio children, children of divorce, Tina and DJ may have never realized how much their absence from you made you so very sad. David, you were always so happy when we had 5 kids in the upstairs bedrooms on Henrydale creating havoc and noise though you would yell up to them to "keep it down." Sometimes you and I would sneak out to your old green Chevy truck just to get away from the ruckus inside the house. David you were bereft when Tina and DJ moved to California after having lived on Margaret Street just two blocks away. The noise and chaos in our home from the five of them, Scott,Tina, Chris, DJ, and Colette seemed a very small price to pay for their presence.Tonight, on the eve of my 70th birthday, I don't feel at all old. I feel I'm the very same person on the inside when I loved a man who loved me, who had two children he loved, and learned to love the three children I brought with me. I was surprised and gratified to read a post on our son, Chris's Facebook page tonight where he posted "Summer Breeze" by Seals and Croft as one of his favorite songs. Colette responded that it was one of hers too. I commented that it was one of mine as well. "Summer Breeze" always reminded me of the happiest time in my life when we all lived on Henrydale with their Dad, David G. Thomas.