Annie Glenn. The phrase “love story for the ages” is over-used, in my opinion. But it fits here. She and John Glenn were childhood playmates, and were married for 73 years.
“I could never get through a whole sentence,” she told The New York Times in 1980. “Sometimes I would open my mouth and nothing would come out.”
But in 1973, in her 50s, she decided to address her stuttering by participating in a fluency-shaping program developed by Dr. Ronald Webster at Hollins College (now Hollins University) in Virginia.
“I cannot make telephone calls, so John called and enrolled me,” she told The Boston Globe in 1975. “The first requirement was to do a taped interview. That established the fact that I’m an 85 percent stutterer, which is in the ‘most severe’ range.”
She immersed herself in Dr. Webster’s intensive, three-week program. By the end of it, she said, she could do things that had been beyond her before, like go to a mall and comfortably ask a store clerk where to find something.
“Those three weeks, we weren’t allowed at all to see our family, or to call, or anything,” she said.
“When I called John” at the program’s end, she added, “he cried.”
She became a champion for people with speech disorders and an adjunct professor in the speech pathology department at Ohio State University’s department of speech and hearing science. In 1987, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association created an award in her honor, known as the Annie, presented annually to someone who demonstrates, as the organization puts it, her “invincible spirit in building awareness on behalf of those with communication disorders.”
“Annie Glenn remains a hero to many of us who in various periods of our lives couldn’t get a word, a thought, or a sentiment past our lips,” David M. Shribman, executive editor emeritus of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, wrote in February in The Boston Globe on the occasion of Mrs. Glenn’s 100th birthday.
“She fought her condition, to be sure,” Mr. Shribman, a stutterer himself, wrote, “but she also fought for broad public understanding of stuttering, for the idea that stutterers weren’t merely shy, weren’t unintelligent, weren’t social pariahs.”
I don’t want to give away the end of the obit: I encourage you to go read it.
I will go and read the end,but I just had to say, what a wonderful, open and brave woman. For her, in her 50’s, to not only seek out help, and to stick with the program, which could not have been easy, but then to become an advocate for others with a speech problem, speaks volumes to her character.
The even better part is that she and John were lifelong sweethearts. I have been married twice. The first time, to my high school sweetheart, for 11 years. This time, for almost 28 years. It occurred to me that while I believe in there being a soulmate for people, it is not a person sitting out there somewhere waiting for each of you to happen to run into the other, rather it is another person who, like yourself, is willing to devote themselves to giving their whole live to making you the best person you can be.
My wife makes me a better person, just because she encourages me, she tells me her opinion, and to be honest, she doesn’t allow me to get away with the kind of crap that I as a young man, just didn’t understand how to avoid. Things like, ignoring the needs of my ex wife, or doing things for her, but not to help her, but for my own purposes, like for a reward, or to gain her approval.
And I help to make my wife a better person. She was never married before, and we married when she was 34. So she was kind of set in her ways. So I had to help her to see how to act and react, in a marriage, and to know that I was not going to leave, no matter what. And I helped her to tame down a rather hot temper, and showed her how to be kinder to others. At the same time, she taught me to be less passive, not aggressive, but to stand up for both myself, and for her.
So I don’t believe that there is a soulmate out there for each of us, but rather I believe that no matter who you marry, you can become each others soulmate, through shear will and a willingness to determine that you will strive to become just what the Bible describes a husband and wife should be, and is often used in wedding ceremonies. The husband and wife should become as one flesh. And I truly believe that is what John and Annie Glenn had, and it is what myself and my wife, Laura have. Perhaps another way of putting it is that we complete each other. It is as if I had a Laura sized hole in myself, and until I found her, I was not going to be whole. And it took work from each of us to be able to allow her to fit that hole perfectly, and to be the right one for each other.
I used to joke, that I don’t know why people spend so much time trying to find the right woman to marry, because after you get married, they change and become a different person anyway. Now I realize that is actually true. If you want your marriage to work, you both have to change, to become the person that the other one needs to help them become the best person that they can become. By doing that, I ended up with a complete person,and so did my wife. I know,this is out of left field,and weird, but I just read about the Glenn’s,and it touched my heart, knowing that they had the kind of marriage that most people seek, but so often fail to find. And I am just happy that I found it for myself and my wife. Be safe, and stay healthy.
Tim