Marjorie and I gleefully packed our bags and traveled with great enthusiasm every year of our marriage. It was the greatest privilege to have a traveling companion so savvy and open-minded (and palatted), so relaxed and up for it! She had traveled extensively for food industry magazine reporting, and later in her education reporting gig for the CS Monitor, before we met. And her contagious enthusiasm and curiosity for pet pursuits like reading, theatre, food, trains, art, and yes - TRAVEL, converted me instantaneously. So off we went on a honeymoon to Paris and Prague over Christmas and New Years to cap off 2003 (thanks to the generosity of her mom Marge). Then a swing out west from Santa Fe to Santa Monica, with vast canyons and painted cliffs and coast roads and hairpin turns and In and Out Burgers and savory Mexican treats all along the route. That trip was also Marjorie’s first opportunity to meet my mom, which is such a precious memory. Mom was is the throes of Parkinson’s disease and was generally unable to recognize even family members at the time. But when I walked in with Marjorie, mom threw her harms open wide and said “Oh my dear, I am so pleased to meet you! You are making Johnny so happy!” And each time we visited, she perked up the same way. It meant so much to us. 💕 More travel soon followed in 2005, like a Midwest nostalgia tour that included my suburban Chicago home (1952- 1969) and the mandatory visit to mecca - the friendly confines of Wrigley Field. (M bravely sported her Yankees cap - the only hat she EVER wore unless it was below freezing out). We had a delicious and musically rich time in New Orleans just months before Katrina. Our at-home cooking prowess went up a notch after that trip. Anyone who came over for dinner over the net several years was served my Big Easy Voodoo Shrimp 🔥. Mexico City in 2006 was a crazy-quilt of eye-popping color and memorable sights and sounds. Marjorie insisted on visiting Trotsky’s hideout house on the outskirts of the city (Who thinks of that? She did!) and the walk out there was the greatest show of creative graffitti imaginable. Serendipity must spring from great knowledge and curiosity. At least that was my recurring experience when traveling with M. We took additional trips to Paris, Amsterdam and Rotterdam, London, Vienna and Budapest for the Christmas holidays, and an any icy and unforgettable Quebec City at New Year’s (where we spent NY Eve in the thrall of a Scottish Elvis impersonator who masterfully wiggled and crooned his way through the entire Elvis Christmas album, replete with Pink Cadillac convertible onstage, flanked by Rudolph and his reindeer cohorts. The point of all this verbose reminiscing is… it makes me happy! And I fervently hope some of you have similar anecdotes and stories of our precious friend and my great companion and running buddy. Happily my offspring have caught the travel bug and are carrying on the tradition over domestic and overseas adventures. My son Spencer lives in Paris with wife Ximena and daughter Zoe, and my younger son Mitchell is a painter who currently lives in Berlin, and whose art is displayed world-wide. My daughter Emily travels the world extensively with wife Kate and my grandz Reid and Eddie, who are old enough at 7 to remember their Jojo (Marjorie’s gran moniker) very fondly. I like to think they’ve inherited her fierce curiosity and love of reading and travel. I KNOW they have, and they’ll pass it on.