Hi all. Phil here again. I thought I would share a little more ancient history on my wife Barbara and how we first met as it (of course) involves hockey. She had recently moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where I was a student at the university. We each had friends from schools who worked together in Michigan and they decided to road trip to Madison. We met, and shortly after that, I called her up and invited her to join me at a Wisconsin Badgers hockey game. At that point, I didn't know if she even liked hockey, but I was a big fan and thought I could educate her a bit. As we sat for the pre-game skate, I started to explain the off sides and icing rules, to help her enjoy the game more. She quickly informed me that she had been following the NHL since she was 7 years old and that of course she knew about icing! Wow. The first hockey date I ever had who knew the game. We went on to 32 years together, including a great many Red Wings games, where we were season ticket holders. Bear in mind, converting her to be a Red Wings fan was no easy feat, since she had grown up a Blackhawks fan in Chicago. Working on my side were the fact that she was still mad at Bill Wirtz for taking the Hawks off broadcast TV, the fact that the Wings had a solid line up of Russian players, and that the Wings had just signed Chris Chelios (a former Wisconsin Badger and of course famous for saying when he was with Chicago that he would never play for Detroit!) I think she always had a soft spot for the Hawks, but we were happy Wings fans for many years.
Thanks to all of you for the kind words. It's great to hear about her friends and interactions here on HF, and I hope you can also get a glimpse of what a great person she was IRL.
Phil
