The Best Friday of My Life

This is how I will always remember Raymond Riker, III

September 22, 1989 - it was a Friday, just like today in 2017.  The calendar this year matches 1989.  The absolute best year of my life.  That was the year I met my soul mate Raymond Perry Riker, III.  We first caught eyes on Memorial Day of that year and four months later we had our actual "first date."  Etched in my mind forever.  We went to Salute on Woodward near Six Mile Rd. in Detroit.  There was about an hour and a half wait for a table - but we didn't care.  We talked, laughed, teased...I would have waited hours just to be with him.

We were never legally allowed to marry during his lifetime and so we never had an actual anniversary date of marriage.  We decided to make it the day we both knew we were in love with each other.  That day was September 22.  Every year after we celebrated our anniversary on this day.  It has been 28 years since we met.  More years than I had lived on the earth at that time.  I was a 22 year old "boy" and Ray was 30.  Acquaintances of his "warned" him that I was too young.  I was too much of a risk to get involved with.  I would have a fling and move on to someone younger.  He followed his heart and we stayed together for the rest of his life.

In an odd way he is still part of my life.  Of course there isn't a day that goes by in which he isn't on my mind.  In fact - in a way he is always on my mind.  I make recipes of his and remember his great food.  I listen to music and can't help but think of memories they bring of us together.  I put up holiday decorations (...including Halloween which Ray knew was my favorite) and remember when we bought this or that decoration.  It's totally impossible to "move on."  That just absolutely cannot happen when you lose your soul mate to death.  In a few months it will be eight years since he's been gone and I realize that your life changes but you don't "move on," you "go on."

So as I look at today's calendar, Friday, September 22, 2017 I am reminded of the best Friday of my life, September 22, 1989. - Jimmy