Oh yeah... forgot this.

Last Sunday, Ruth and I went to visit a man who was Ruth's hairdresser for several years and who sings in the Men's Chorus that I sing in. We're not close personal friends but when we heard he was in the hospital, we wanted to visit him. James is diabetic and was very depressed and frightened. We'd talked to him over the phone a couple of times and he was extremely upset because they had to surgically remove his big toe. I gave him a copy of my book in hopes it would help lift his spirits and as we talked we asked him about his wife. We've met her a couple of times but didn't know her name so we asked him. He said, her name is Deirdre, and it would mean so much to her if you pronounced her name right. I said, oh, she's named Deirdre, just like my friend, and I spelled out the letters of her name. He was grinning from ear to ear and he said again, "you don't know how much it means to her to have someone pronounce her name correctly!" and I answered, with a name like Rasmussen, you don't have to tell me about it...