Mabel, I’ll never forget her. I remember the whole story as if it were yesterday. You see, Chippy and I have been best friends since childhood. We grew up together, played football in the fall together and baseball in the spring. When America joined the war, Chippy and I even enlisted in the army together. Can you imagine that? Young “Chippy” Chipperson and Jon Baer, two fresh-faced kids from Kentucky marching off to play at soldiers. We fought side-by-side through Normandy and Market Garden. Things got bad in Bastogne though. Chippy got caught in the open during a round of shelling and took a nasty piece of shrapnel in his leg before he could get to our foxhole. Trees were exploding all around us; I couldn’t let him lie out there like that and drug him back to our foxhole. You should have heard how badly Chippy tore into me for risking my life doing something stupid like that. I didn’t care though, he was my best friend. Lucky for Chippy, he got sent back home due to heal. I got promoted and had to fight until the end of the war.
Well once I got back to the States I naturally had to visit my best friend Chippy in the hospital. We talked for hours, catching up with each other. I told him war stories about me and the rest of the squad, and Chippy started telling me about a nice nurse that he’d gotten to know somewhat. Since his leg was pretty much healed by that point, we went out the dance hall that night and wouldn’t you know it? Mabel was there. She came up to us and Chippy introduced me to her. Soon enough, the two of them were twirling around the dance floor, putting everyone else to shame.
Things moved pretty quickly after that. Chippy and Mabel went steady and soon enough they were married. It was a beautiful ceremony, just for family and close friends and I was honored to be Chippy’s best man. Mabel was radiant in her lacy white wedding dress. I had never seen either of them more in love.
I moved to New Haven, Kentucky shortly after Chippy and Mabel did. I ended up getting a job as a deputy sheriff and soon enough I had a wife of my own, Irene. Irene and I moved in next door to Chippy and Mabel shortly after we got married. We had children of our own and they loved to go over to “Auntie Mabel’s” and play. While Chippy and I would go hunting or fishing on the weekends, Irene and Mabel would get together and bake or quilt or take the kids out on little field trips. I was an only child and Irene’s family lived in Indiana so it was nice to think that the kids had their “Auntie Mabel” right next door whenever they wanted to see her. And Mabel, bless her heart, always did everything she could to make them feel like family.
Decades passed. The children grew up and moved out of the house but we still lived right next door to Chippy and Mabel. I gave another best man speech at their 50th wedding anniversary when they renewed their vows, just as I had so many years before. It was truly amazing seeing just how in love they both were after all these years. I think they may have been even more in love then than they were when they first got married.
It was just a few months before Mabel’s 80th birthday when we found out she had pancreatic cancer. She fought it bravely, never letting herself drown in grief. She worried more about what Chippy would do after she passed than about herself. I remember Irene would spend all day over at her house during her last months, helping Mabel make and stockpile frozen casseroles for her husband. Not long after her birthday, though, the cancer got so bad she couldn’t stay home anymore. I drove with Chippy as we took her to St. Joseph’s hospital. The doctors couldn’t do anything but try and make the pain as tolerable as possible for her. I remember waiting outside the hospital room on August 23rd, 2004 while Chippy played their song for her one last time. Even though I wasn’t in the room, I couldn’t help but break out into tears right there in the hallway as the song ended and her heart monitor flatlined.
Mable was one of the best friends I ever had. She was kind, generous, and genuinely loved life. She was truly one of a kind and I don’t think I will ever meet someone quite like her ever again. Mabel may have passed away, but she will always live on in my heart.
Here’s to you, Mabel. I hope you’re dancing in Heaven.