{"id":28896,"date":"2021-03-13T00:01:28","date_gmt":"2021-03-13T08:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=28896"},"modified":"2021-03-13T00:01:28","modified_gmt":"2021-03-13T08:01:28","slug":"jon-newhall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/jon-newhall\/","title":{"rendered":"Widowed: Lucky Me, I Told Jon Newhall I Loved Him"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jon<\/a>
Jon liked to have a glass of wine and catch the news as he cooked dinner. Photos by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dear Friends, Family and Readers:<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s been three weeks since Jon died, and one thought in particular keeps coming to mind: I’m so glad I wrote that post about him in back in 2019, the one with the breathless headline, “Lucky Me, I Married Jon Newhall.”<\/em><\/p>\n

In 2019, I thought I was lucky to be married to Jon. And now, in 2021, I’m thinking — lucky me, I let him know I loved him while he was still alive.<\/em><\/p>\n

He Got the Message<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Jon saw the “Lucky Me” post, of course. And I’m pretty sure the message got across, in its oblique way. <\/em><\/p>\n

I was lucky to have this man in my life for fifty years.\u00a0<\/em>We met in 1971, the year we both turned thirty. And now Jon has departed in 2021, the year we\u00a0<\/em>were\u00a0<\/em>b<\/em>oth to turn eighty.<\/em><\/p>\n

I’m republishing the “Lucky Me” post here as a public service. It’s my way of reminding you to use your words. Tell your SO you love them. Now’s your chance. You might not get another. Go for it. <\/em>— BFN<\/em><\/p>\n

Lucky Me, I Married Jon Newhall<\/h3>\n

By Barbara Falconer Newhall<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I heard Jon’s footsteps clumping across the floor above me a few minutes ago. And a thought popped into my mind, uninvited. “Lucky me,” went the thought. “I’m married to that guy. How in the world did the universe arrange itself so that I’d be here and a real Jon Newhall would be there, upstairs, making dinner?”<\/p>\n

I could tell it was Jon because of the uneven clumping gait. Jon’s right leg is shorter than the left, thanks to a pair of nasty Dobermans who attacked the right leg when Jon was a toddler. And thanks to a polio epidemic that came to California a couple of years later and attacked the same leg.<\/p>\n

Also, it was pushing 7 p.m. and that’s when Jon leaves his office, his keyboard, and the thriller novel he’s writing, to come downstairs to start dinner.<\/p>\n

Jon Newhall Cooks Dinner<\/h5>\n

Jon makes dinner at our house. He shops for the chicken, the artichokes and the sourdough. Also, the fingerling potatoes for me. He brings it all home and turns it into dinner.<\/p>\n

Once upon a time, way back in 1970, I was a forlorn single woman adrift in hippie-era San Francisco. And now I’m married to Jon. That’s a fact I don’t pay much attention to these days.<\/p>\n

I’m writing all this down, not to convince you that Jon is a good person, which he is. I ‘m writing this down for myself, so I don’t forget: Today I heard those footsteps overhead — and they made me happy.<\/p>\n

Read Jon’s obituary at “Jonathan Newhall. My Husband of Forty-Four Years.<\/a>“<\/a>\u00a0 Another version was published in our local weekly, The Montclarion<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Jon<\/a>
Artichokes for dinner, one for each of us.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Jon<\/a><\/p>\n

Lucky me. I told my husband I loved him while he was still alive. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,14],"tags":[34,148,2415,1175,2074,2416,2417,2418,689,82,2419],"class_list":["post-28896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-my-changing-family","category-widowed","tag-dont-miss","tag-feminism","tag-gender-roles","tag-husbands","tag-jon-newhall","tag-jons-leg","tag-jonathan-newhall","tag-man-who-cooks","tag-marriage","tag-on-the-funny-side","tag-widowed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28896\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}