Wedding anniversary and last day at the paper

Today is a big day for a couple of reasons. First, today is my 15^th wedding anniversary. Second, today is my last day of work at the Kuna Melba News, after five-and-a-half years as editor, five of those years as owner.

Actually, it’s quite fitting that these two occasions fall on the same day. They are closely related.

Now, I consider myself a good judge of character, but my judgment of my wife, Nicola, some 17 years ago, is proof that I am the smartest guy in the world.

There was no real way of knowing, back then, that Nicola was going to be a great mother. I could only guess, at the time, that she was going to be a great cook. I knew firsthand from working with her that she was a great writer and a hard worker, but I couldn’t have known for sure that she would rise so quickly and so high in her career.

To think that later she would agree to buy a weekly newspaper in Kuna, Idaho, and become the publisher, doing ad sales, ad design, circulation and all the books, would have been sheer audacity. But she did it, and she was great at it. She made this dream possible. I honestly couldn’t think of another person who could have done what she has done.

I also don't know of many other couples who could have worked together, every day, in a cramped little office under often-stressful conditions.

And without truly knowing any of this, I made the brilliant decision on Valentine’s Day in 1996 to ask her to marry me. And to my great good fortune, she agreed. Thank you for everything, Nicola.