I'm such a mix of emotions today. I am so, so proud that Barack Obama is finally President and that we got to wave good-bye to the Bush years but yet so sad that my husband, David, isn't here with me at this moment.
I'm such a mix of emotions today. I am so, so proud that Barack Obama is finally President and that we got to wave good-bye to the Bush years but yet so sad that my husband, David, isn't here with me at this moment.
David died suddenly on January 5. He was 53 years old and for the past year had been the biggest Obama supporter on the face of the earth. When Obama first announced for the Presidency, the rest of us were like "yeah, right, he doesn't have a chance". But not David, no not David. David, you see believed. He believed in change. He believed everything would work out okay. He believed in Barack Obama.
David was Canadian born but became an American when in his teens. He was a Political Science major and as a Democrat was the odd one out in his Republican family. He was raised in California and moved here to NYC to be with me in 1999. He got caught in the dust cloud of the second building falling on September 11, 2001 and for a while there worried me because it looked like he was becoming a Bush supporter.
David woke up though, went back to his true values and marched with me against the war in Iraq and he cried along with me during Katrina. He hated the idea of waterboarding and torture and looked forward to the day that Guantanamo closed.
He believed in equality, he believed in fairness, he believed in the greatness of this country. He wanted a better country, a better world for our son and daughters.
On election night, he was nervous, pacing the house until he finally sat down with me in front of the tv. When the AP called the election he sat with me and cried. We hugged each other and I said to him "We did it, hon, we've saved our country". He said to me then, "Do we have an American flag? I've got an idea". We located some small, hand-held flags that we bought a few (pre-Bush) Fourth of July's ago and he made us all go out in the front yard and stand next to our Obama lawn signs. There we hooted and hollared and hugged and cried with happiness. He made us get out the camera and take pictures, then he took me upstairs for some victory sex as he said it was time for "good times and celebration". Smiles.
Here's something he wrote last spring in response to one of those "Obama is the Devil" emails:
"I do disagree with you about the necessity for a dreamer. We need a dreamer to recapture the jaded democratic elders like myself and to speak for the disenfranchised and the young. We need a dreamer that can lead and that certainly is not McCain. McCain is in fact a far right compromiser presiding over the last gasp of the republican party. For him to be elected president, well we can expect the closing days of American greatness to be upon us. However, when Obama is sworn in January we will begin to reclaim our Country and our place in the world. I will be proud, I will be happy and I will look forward for the next four years for the first time in a long time"
When I buried him last week it was with one of his Obama buttons on his 49'ers jersey and with a "Yes, We Did!" sticker on his coffin.
I miss him so badly and wish he were here sitting next to me. I know though that, in a way he is with me, but he is with Barack Obama too. And that he is shining down upon all of us, sharing in the happiness that we feel.