Love story: Mary and Dale Goodwin

One early spring day in 1984, our assistant volleyball coach walked into my office at Gonzaga University and asked how my Bloomsday training was going. “Not good,” I said, as my Bloomsday running buddy lived up north and we seldom could get together for a run.

I’m a social runner. If I don’t have company, I’m not motivated to run.

The volleyball coach yelled out to the hallway, “Hey, Mary, you wanna train with Dale for Bloomsday?”

Mary was reading a bulletin board in the hallway, and she had no idea who I was or whether I’d be a safe running companion. She sheepishly looked through the doorway, gulped a time or two, and said, “I, I guess I could.”

I thought, “I’ve got to make this as safe for her as possible.”

So, I suggested we meet at Kennedy Pavilion on campus at 5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. “You can choose the route. We can run at whatever pace fits you, for as long or short as you wish. I’ll appreciate the good company.”

We ran Bloomsday that year and have run/walked 37 together since then.

But it hasn’t always been easy.

In 2007, Mary, now my wife, was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, a hardening of the lungs. Doctors gave her “maybe three years to live.”

It continued to progress for four years until she was near her last breaths and was given a double-lung transplant on Sept. 20, 2011, at age 50. A miracle, indeed.

The best three months of my life were caring for her in the University of Washington Medical Center for 16 days, and in our Seattle apartment for another 2½ months before we could come home.

Next to a successful transplant, one of our most joyful moments came when we crossed the Bloomsday finish line in May 2012, seven months after her transplant, our arms raised in victory, with our kids and 16 of our friends, tears flowing and hearts pounding out of our chests.

Mary is my inspiration every day and an amazing role model for our children, Ben, 28, and Brook, 23. She is the most giving, gracious and loving human being I know. And, yes, a little competitive, which helped her fight her way through this dogged ordeal.

I don’t deserve her, but she gives me so much to live for every day, and I am incredibly grateful for her love, care and presence in my life.

Happy Valentine’s Day, Mar. I love you with all my heart. Dale.