By Derek.

Marissa and I did an interesting exercise recently: we made timelines of our lives.  Mine was — well, the lines were straight.  Other than that, it was pretty lackluster.  But Marissa’s was a work of art.  It was detailed, insightful, even funny.  I learned new things about her childhood.  And I laughed at the smiley faces.  So many smiley faces.  It is, after all, a record of a joyful life well-lived.  And the basis for this short note about my beautiful bride.

Marissa’s story has two clear themes: family and hard-won achievement.  She summarizes her first 15 years in three points.  She met her grandpas in the Philippines at age 3.  When Marissa was 4, her sister was born.  At 15, Marissa won the sectional tennis title at midnight.  There’s also a note about not liking raisins starting at age 5, the tragic (but not unexpected) result of eating a handful and watching the California Raisins dance on a TV commercial  (she still can’t bear to eat raisins).

Marissa’s timeline gets more packed from there.  Between pinpoint-accurate mousetrap cars, tennis championships, and undergrad at the University of Illinois, Marissa developed into a sharp young woman.  She got a Master’s degree in Boston, presented original research in radiobiology to NASA and the Dept. of Energy, and found herself in medical school in Champaign and Rockford.  Elected class rep.  Passed Steps 1 & 2, worked with a particle accelerator with NASA in New York (yep, that’s an atom smasher).  Realized that her calling may very well be with the youngest patients in the hospital.

And somewhere in there, around January 2011, she met me.  That point gets a pretty good-sized smiley face on my love’s timeline.  But the end of her timeline sums her up story — and her irresistible personality — the very best.  She reserves the broadest, smiley-est face for the final point: TODAY 🙂

She’s the true Dr. Love — my beautiful bride, Marissa.