Cast of characters: Amazing Walt

Where in the world do I start in describing my husband? "Amazing" goes without saying!

Walt pretty much lives in his head which, I should to add, is a very busy head. One never knows what he is thinking until, bingo, you mention something, and somehow, in way the rest of us would never guess, he will relate it to one of the very complex concepts his mind has been working on.

Basically laid-back, he does have his strong opinions about a certain few things, and a lot of knowledge about a lot of other stuff. He seems detached from the immediate world around him. Yeah. He's a lot like Einstein except he says his best idea to date, other than marrying me, seems to have been buying the Pelican Post, rather than E=mc2. Oh, well. How much use, really, was Einstein's theory in my life? ;) And I have been, as Einstein's wife was, the one who reminds him "where he is and what he's about." :)

Walt is pretty much unstoppable, and that, plus the fact that his head is often in the clouds, is the probably the reason that he's broken his neck, both legs, both ankles, and has had a severely burned foot. But he bounces back from his injuries with incredible determination! He could very well be Ripley's Believe It or Not material. He's spent nearly 50 years in a wheelchair and been to more places during those years than anyone else in the family. He speaks Spanish fluently, and understands the financial markets better than anyone I know although never ever as much as he wants to!

Walt has decided that he wants to be buried (he believes every person is entitled to his own little share of the Earth) in Hilltop Cemetery because he says, "Peck was the best dad I ever had and I think I'd like to be buried next to him." Wow. That is huge to me. Dad really admired Walt, and so did Mom, and considering how different he is from anyone in our family, that has always said a lot to me not only about Walt, but about Mom's and Dad's open minds, too.

We might at times feel like Walt is looking right through us, but he's not. He's pretty much a live-and-let-live guy. And I do believe, despite coming from "lofty" Harvard genes, that he appreciates the down-to-earth goodness and gentleness, as he says, of the Simpkins clan. After 25 years in our family, he is a true "character" in our cast, and the only person I've ever been able to be my complete and true self with, and felt loved by anyway! :)