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="alignright" width="336" 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="336" height="230" /></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="alignright" width="278" 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="278" height="408" /></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.

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]

&nbsp;

[caption id="attachment_1154" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Our wedding took place 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]

&nbsp;

[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]

&nbsp;

[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]

&nbsp;

[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]

&nbsp;

[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]

&nbsp;

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