“I’ve heard it said
That people come into our lives
For a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them…” (thank you Stephen Schwartz)

It was the summer of 1991, I was in Huntsville,Texas (yes, the home of “Big Sparky”) for a two week session involving the next phase of teaching Calculus with the help of a graphing calculator during its infancy. As part of that, Greg Foley, the leader of the band, signed us all up to attend a conference in Houston. When we arrived at the hotel where we were both staying and where the conference was being held, myself and a few other miscreants decided we needed to visit the one of the hotel bars for a respite from the technical talk. As we started to sip, we met two loquacious young women, Kathy Mittag and Sharon Taylor, both already established PhD’s though we would not find that out for quite a while since it never came up and they certainly didn’t need to impress anyone beyond simply being part of the conversation. They were connected to Max Coleman (yes, another PhD) from Sam Houston Institute of Technology (think on that acronym for a moment), who was also a friend of Greg’s and ended up being about as stiff as Ken Kesey and also being the driver of a van that very much reminded us fellow miscreants of the Merry Prankster bus. I could go on for a very long time about the events of that night, Greg’s absolute dismay that Max decided some of us should not have dinner at the conference but instead he took us to Pappadeaux, and the remainder of the second week of that session, beginning with another side trip on the way back to Huntsville to go to Borskis, but that’s for another time.

What began in Texas in ’91 became and still is, a deep friendship with Dr. Sharon Taylor. She has been there for me throughout very bad times and also there to cheer me on during great times, that too is a long, ongoing story for another time.

That brings me to The LaCosta Resort in Carlsbad, CA over a decade later. I was there as part of the development and exposition for a device that we thought would revolutionize education, Xpander funded by HP and we were there to introduce it over multiple days to a very select group of invitees from both the high school and university ranks. One of those evenings, not coincidentally sitting at yet another watering spot, Sharon introduced me to Marshall Ransom and for no reason I can recall other than laughter, the subject came up of a TV show we both watched as kids (we were very close in age though neither one of us knew it at the time), Winky Dink [Google it kids]. The fact that not another person at the “table” had a clue what we were talking about created an immediate bond..so much so that we broke into a chorus of the theme song:

Winky Dink and you!

Winky Dink and me!

Always have a lot of fun together!

Winky Dink and you!

Winky Dink and me!

We are pals in fair or stormy weather! We laughed so hard and so long and so loudly that we had to be “shusssshhhed” by the server….

It was a while later that I found out that Sharon and Marshall were together. Over the next 25 or so years I had the great pleasure to spend time with them even though I lived in CT and they lived in Statesboro, GA (yes, THAT Statesboro, ABB fans) and were pillars of both the AP Calculus group for ETS as well as Sharon assuming the title of Dept Chair at Georgia Southern University, and Marshall as a professor of Mathematics. About a year or so ago, now that we were living in Bluffton, SC we had dinner with them in Savannah and it was as if time had never passed. Lively conversation, more laughs than anyone should have a right to and the simple joy of being around the best folks.

I had texted Sharon to tell her of our plans to move back to CT and we talked about getting together for a great dinner prior to our exit and left it at that. A little less than a month ago I opened an email from Sharon only to read that in late May, Marshall had gone to the ER with shortness of breath and was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, something that was incurable but could be managed and had an average life expectancy of 3-5 years. I checked in periodically but each time it seemed to be getting tougher. As it turned out, in his own way, Marshall was, as usual, way above average as they ended up having, according to Sharon 2 months and 6 days. Marshall Ransom left us for something greater on July 27th. I will miss my friend but am so much better for having had time with him.

There are two sets of lyrics that describe things better than I ever could, I started with some of them I’ll add more here:

Because I knew you
I have been changed
For good

Then there is a song by Cliff Eberhardt that gave me the title for this piece: The Long Road I will let that play us out after a toast that Kathy Mittag posted (you remember Kathy from the beginning of this piece);

So to hellos, goodbyes and some left in between!

“I can hear your voice in the wind

Are you calling to me down the long road?

Somehow I feel that you are here

You are waiting in a dream

Somewhere down this road we will awake

To be at the start again“