In Fall 1969, as a freshman at Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky, I was assigned to a lab table in Biology 101. My lab partner and I sat on one side of that lab table and Gregg Lewis and his lab partner sat on the other side. Gregg Lewis . . . a tall, blond basketball player, a good-looking jock. But I had two classes with him and quickly discovered that he was  a very bright student, as well as a good-looking athlete.

[caption id="attachment_1151" align="alignleft" width="274" caption="Gregg as a cute, blond kindergartener."]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/GreggKinder.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1151" title="GreggKinder" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/GreggKinder.jpg" alt="" width="274" height="389" /></a>[/caption]

At one point that Fall I learned that he had grown up in Wilmore. So I asked my friend Julia, also from Wilmore, what she could tell me about Gregg Lewis. "Oh," she exclaimed, "Gregg is wonderful. Really smart. A great basketball player. A very nice person. But, he is going steady with Donna."

Over the years, when I would tell this story to our children, I would invest my voice with scorn when I said the name, "Donna."

I always picked up my mail at the CPO before going to Biology class. One day, I sat down at the lab table and opened a letter from my sister Janice. Gregg looked across the lab table and saw the return address.

"You know Janice Crouse?" he asked.

"She's my sister." I answered. And Gregg told me that he had gone to church with Janice when her husband Gilbert was the music director at that church.

[caption id="attachment_1152" align="alignleft" width="480" caption="Ron, Gilbert, Jim and Terry, David and Gregg in front, 1980s"]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Shawmen.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-1152 " title="Shawmen" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Shawmen.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="328" /></a>[/caption]

Another day I opened another letter, this one from my sister Joan. Again, Gregg looked at the return address and asked, "You know Joan Turrentine?"

"She's my sister," I told him. And learned that Gregg had played basketball with Joan's husband Jim, and that Joan had taught at his high school.

[caption id="attachment_1159" align="aligncenter" width="464" caption="Matthew dunks the ball, while his Daddy holds him, and Andrew waits his turn."]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/GAMbasketball.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-1159 " title="GAMbasketball" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/GAMbasketball-698x1024.jpg" alt="" width="464" height="680" /></a>[/caption]

Later that Fall, my BIL Jim had tickets to the Atlanta Braves playoff games. I went home to Georgia to watch the Braves lose to the Mets.

My first day back at Asbury, after the Christmas break that year, I was cleaning steam tables in the cafeteria, one of my campus jobs, when Gregg Lewis walked up and asked me if I'd like to go snow sledding that evening. I assured him that sounded like fun.  We double dated with my brother Mark and his then-girlfriend Martha Crouse.

After sledding down the hill several times, we went to the Grill for hot chocolate and conversation.

I dated no one else at Asbury.  We married on March 9, 1973, during Spring Break of our senior year.

[caption id="attachment_1155" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Gregg with his brothers Mark and Mack at our wedding. In 1973. A VERY 70s wedding!"]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/GMarkMackwedding.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-1155 " title="GMarkMackwedding" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/GMarkMackwedding.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="286" /></a>[/caption]

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[caption id="attachment_1154" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="We married at Epworth United Methodist Church in Atlanta."]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/DGweddinggaze.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-1154" title="DGweddinggaze" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/DGweddinggaze.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="320" /></a>[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1170" align="aligncenter" width="348" caption="Since we were married before graduation, we walked across the stage together. And Dr. Dennis Kinlaw handed us our diplomas."]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/DGgradcollege.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-1170 " title="DGgradcollege" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/DGgradcollege-695x1024.jpg" alt="" width="348" height="512" /></a>[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1171" align="aligncenter" width="469" caption="In 1974 we traveled to Yellowstone. Gregg LOVES fishing."]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Greggfishingyellowstone.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1171" title="Greggfishingyellowstone" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Greggfishingyellowstone.jpg" alt="" width="469" height="612" /></a>[/caption]

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[caption id="attachment_1165" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Gregg, with his parents, Margie and Ralph Lewis, and Andrew on the day we bought Andrew home from the hospital in August 1979."]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Gproudpapa.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-1165 " title="Gproudpapa" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Gproudpapa.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="325" /></a>[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1168" align="aligncenter" width="479" caption="Gregg with Matthew in 1981."]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/GMattbaby.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-1168 " title="GMattbaby" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/GMattbaby.jpg" alt="" width="479" height="427" /></a>[/caption]

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[caption id="attachment_1172" align="aligncenter" width="196" caption="Gregg with Andrew, Matthew and Lisette, reading, &quot;And To Think That I Saw it On Mulberry Street.&quot; Love that book. Love those children. Love that man."]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/AMLGreading.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1172 " title="AMLGreading" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/AMLGreading.jpg" alt="" width="196" height="219" /></a>[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1153" align="aligncenter" width="489" caption="Gregg at age 28. He was an editor at Campus Life Magazine when this was taken."]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Gat28yrs.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1153" title="Gat28yrs" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Gat28yrs.jpg" alt="" width="489" height="582" /></a>[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1161" align="aligncenter" width="479" caption="Gregg reading to Matthew, while my Mother and my Daddy look on. Did I mention that Gregg is an author? That he&#39;&#39;s had 50-plus books published?"]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/RuthCharlesGreggMatt.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-1161 " title="RuthCharlesGreggMatt" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/RuthCharlesGreggMatt.jpg" alt="" width="479" height="420" /></a>[/caption]

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[caption id="attachment_1156" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Tall, good-looking man, with three of his tall, good-looking sons. . . Matthew, Gregg, Jonathan and Benjamin. Andrew and Lisette were not with us on that trip."]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/MGJBvermont.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-1156 " title="MGJBvermont" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/MGJBvermont.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="343" /></a>[/caption]

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[caption id="attachment_1162" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Grandpa Lewis, Matthew at 6 months, Gregg&#39;s dad, Andrew at 2 years, and my tall, good-looking husband."]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/GrpaLewisGrpaMAG.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-1162 " title="GrpaLewis,Grpa,MAG" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/GrpaLewisGrpaMAG.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="311" /></a>[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1148" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Our family last June, at Jessica and Jonathan&#39;s wedding."]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/AMLBJJGDwedding.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-1148 " title="AMLBJJGDwedding" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/AMLBJJGDwedding.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="298" /></a>[/caption]

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Today, April 30 is Gregg's birthday. Happy birthday to my tall, good-looking husband!