I'm only strong enough to stand here today because I'm at a place, in my heart and head, that Lesley showed me and led me to.

I've known Lesley for a long time, seems like all my life. We went to the same church when we were young and we went to high school together.

Lesley was a smokeshow, and I was a goofy nerd (I'm still a goofy nerd, it's just harder to tell because I just look old).

I wasn't dreaming of Alyssa Milano or Christina Applegate, it was Lesley Burke.

As Port Huron would have it, I landed at a custom software house where Lesley's dad David Witzke worked and we became fast friends. 20 some odd years later, Lesley would come back into my life in Euchre tournaments at David's house. I could barely take my eyes off of her. The radiant beauty of her smile and her laughter were absolutely captivating.

By 2014 Lesley and I were spending a lot of time together. We had so much to talk about. We had both been through the shredder of life, came out the other end, and managed to put some of the pieces back together. We had so much common ground – we could talk about everything. We could be ourselves. It felt like a kind of freedom I had never known.

Lesley loved to talk. She was an awesome communicator. One of my friends once told me his daughter said "…but Daddy, I just love talking. I love everything about talking". That was Lesley. She could talk to anyone and find new friends in any circumstance.

Once, Lesley invited me over to her house on Fairway Drive. She wanted me to meet her roommate Kristine. I remember sitting on the couch with Lesley, talking, and at some point I started thinking to myself, "wow, Lesley is really letting me talk tonight, like she is really interested in what I have to say". Eventually I looked over and she was sound asleep.

One night, we were just hanging out, enjoying each other's company, watching the Red Wings probably (Lesley loved the Red Wings), Lesley told me some old friend on Facebook said to her, "Let me know when you're single". She was a little annoyed by it, but it seemed like an opportunity and I quickly said "Add me to that list too please".

Lesley didn't realize how amazing and beautiful she really was. I've found that is a mark of the truly cool people amongst us – they don't even know it. I remember explaining to Lesley, with slightly more crass phrasing, "Lesley, there is no 1 to 10 scale for how men view women. There is ‘Yes' and there is ‘No' and the ‘Yes' side is much larger than the ‘No' side". Lesley quickly asked "And I'm on the Yes side?"

Does a one legged duck swim in circles? I didn't really say that, but I wish I had.

And it worked, our relationship took a turn for the serious and Lesley was the best Christmas present ever that year, in 2014. We were so close, we used to laugh about how we had this little private joke, that our relationship was so good and most other people didn't have what we had. Lesley was a dream come true.

Lesley was an old school, take care of your man kind of woman. I had the easy part. All I had to do was go to work. There was this spot on the floor in the bedroom, the magic floor, where if I put my dirty clothes there, they would magically reappear in the closet within a day or two. There was a magic counter too with very similar properties. I set dirty dishes down and they just got cleaned somehow.

Lesley really enjoyed cooking. It didn't matter how much effort she had put into a meal, like her Beef Bolognese recipe with a sauce that took her at least an hour to make, if not longer. She would still say "I made you some dinner. You don't have to eat it if it's not good." There would be no sitting at the table into the wee hours of the night with unfinished food on my plate.

Lesley has an amazing chili recipe. It was a little more expensive than typical chili, with nice chunks of sirloin and a spice that took it to the next level. She made the best blue cheese stuffed burgers and epic sliders that put Powers to shame too. And I'll let you in on a little secret. Have you ever found your leftover pizza a bit unappetizing? Lesley had the solution. Scrape off the cheese and toppings, toss the stale pizza crust, and make omelets. Pizza omelets are worthy of a Nobel Prize. Try it some time.

She left me some confusing messages in my clothing. One year, she got me a pair of silk boxers for Christmas embroidered with the phrase "Lesley's King". The following year I got socks that said "Natural Born Asshole". I guess it just depends on which way you read me. If you read from the top down, things don't end up so good, but from the bottom up, I'm a King.

And that's how Lesley treated me. Her Mom Linda told me Lesley loved me desperately. It was obvious. The little things that we do to show how much we love someone. Lesley knew I liked to have a bagel in the morning. She would set out a piece of paper towel, a knife, and a sandwich bag for me. She would put my coffee cup in the Keurig and set out a few K cups, making sure the carafe was full of water. She would set out a bag with my daily vitamins and wash my travel mug and water bottle. She knew how to take care of me – those little things were so special.

Lesley was so supportive. When I lost my Mom in 2015, Lesley carried me through. I don't know if I would have made it out the other end without her help. If I had a big project at work or an important meeting that I was stressing about, Lesley would almost downplay it saying "I'm sure it will be fine".

Then I would tell her how it went later and she would be so proud of me. Even if she didn't understand exactly what I do for a living, she knew I was capable of a lot and she was going to make sure I knew it too.

Sometimes I think my sarcastic, dry humor got under her skin a little. After a quip, she would often tell me "You're not right". And I would quickly add "But I'm what's left".

Lesley wasn't prone to understatement. She had a favorite multiplier – 8,000. If I told her something more than once, it was 8,000 times. She carried in 8,000 pounds of groceries before I started helping. She had asked me for help with something 8,000 times before I actually did it.

Lesley had a deep love of her friends and family. We regularly donated to charities and supported friends and family through GoFundMe or other means. It was a point of pride to Lesley that we were in a position to be able to help others.

By Christmas of 2015, we knew we wanted to spend forever together. I have a terrible time keeping secrets, but I had a secret. I was going to propose to Lesley on Christmas Day. We were fortunate enough to meet a fantastic jeweler in Chesterfield. He made Lesley a stunning engagement ring with a rare stone and other customizations like miniature hearts cast in metal on either side of the stone. I left the GIA certification out on my desk in my office almost hoping Lesley would figure it out. The secret was killing me. Everyone at work and most of her family knew well before she did. I had to show and tell someone, some 20 people, just to keep from telling Lesley.

"Let's just open one gift" I said as we walked back in from the patio of our upper floor condo. As we walked in front of the Christmas tree, I took her ring out of hiding, pivoted to face Lesley, and kneeled. That was by far my best move ever. She said yes.

In closing, I would like to leave you with a quote from Nicolas Cage:

"I would rather have had one breath of her hair, one kiss of her mouth, one touch of her hand, than eternity without it. One."