The Falls Before the Falls

(The trip to Niagara Falls before the wounding fall and the fatal fall).

p. 237-240
To: bvoss
From: jameskennedy
Sent: Wed, Sep 28, 2011
“Barb, It is quite obvious to me that we are both hopeless and helpless when we are not together. I need you by my side all the time and never want to be away from you. I love you so much. Jim”

Our trip to Buffalo was like a second honeymoon. We stayed at the Adams Mark overlooking the water. We didn’t mind that it rained and was cold the whole time. When Jim wasn’t doing his two speeches, we had fun. His speeches were incredible. We were together and so much in love.

The morning we ventured over to see Niagara Falls, we donned our rain gear.

(The following are never before seen photos from our trip to Buffalo and the Inner Harbor Project including the squirrel that lived on the 537 ship/these photos are not included in the book).

When we got out of the rental car, Jim put on his hooded rain cape. When I looked over at him and started laughing at him so hard, there was a resulting uncontrollable surge of, yes, gas that released from me. I laughed so much that I almost fell over on the wet pavement. Jim thought it was so funny that he couldn’t get out any words, just waves of intense laughter with me.
I was totally humiliated, but looking at him in his hooded cape, I got out the words, ‘Hey, look, it’s Robin Hood.’
We both bellowed with laughter so hard we spent at least twenty minutes holding on to the rental car for support trying to compose ourselves before walking over to the falls. There have been many references to this story between us, always resulting in some kind of jocularity.

I had the honor of hearing my brilliant husband speak again at a conference. He had made the huge discovery into why a large number of cattle were dying near a town. He traced the paint chips on the ground that the herd was eating to lead poisoning from the water tank. Whoever had scraped the tank to repaint it had allowed all the paint chips containing lead to remain on the ground. This was a fascinating story to hear. I could have listened to him a hundred times, for his wisdom shone, and his speaking abilities captured the audience.

Veterinarians amaze me with their knowledge and skill. Jim amazes me because he is just Jim, the best friend one could ever have.

The weather was so miserable during our short time in Buffalo that all we did between his speeches and being awed by the falls was buy some Buffalo playing cards at the hotel gift shop and play multiple card games in bed. We played many games of Go Fish and had a frivolous time.

The food provided was always a huge buffet, one of those all-you-can-eat festivities, so we stuffed ourselves, even though we may not have wanted to.

Jim would say, ‘Well, it’s time to go down to the feed trough,’ and we tried to walk in the dining room without cracking up. Just before getting on the elevator to go down to dinner, with his precise timing, Jim would snort like a pig and say, ‘We are going down to the feed trough.’

I often laughed so hard that I hoped no one else would get in the elevator, but of course someone did, and I just had to continue my chortle and be stared at. I could not help it. Walking into the dining room was always a real effort of discipline for me for I was trying to act proper, but I found it hard when chuckling and snickering. On numerous occasions, a fellow vet would come and sit with us, and it was all I could do to not fall apart with laughter. One day at lunch, I was laughing so much that Jim had to carry my plate full of food to the table.

Oh, what an amazing man God gifted the world with.

What a blissful thing this was–to have a best friend as a husband and to laugh at and with each other. What a love trip.