Editor’s note: Every Friday, “Weekend Plug-in” meets readers at the intersection of faith and news. Click to join nearly 10,000 subscribers who get this column delivered straight to their inbox. Got feedback or ideas? Email Bobby Ross Jr.

By Bobby Ross Jr. | Religion Unplugged

OKLAHOMA CITY — It’s a call you never want to receive.

“I’ve got cancer,” your loved one says.

Not only that, but it’s pancreatic cancer — often a death sentence. 

Immediately, your brain goes into a fog.

The person on the line was Steve Lackmeyer, a happily married father of two and one of my best and oldest friends.

Both journalism majors, we met as students at Oklahoma Christian University in the late 1980s. For four years, we worked late nights together at the student newspaper The Talon, covering everything from tuition hikes to presidential campaign rallies.

My junior year, I worked up the nerve to ask out a smart, gorgeous freshman named Tamie. To my shock and delight, she said yes.

The only problem: My brother, Scott, was headed home to Texas that weekend and taking our shared 1984 Ford LTD station wagon with him.

Enter Lackmeyer: He knew geeks like us didn’t land dates with girls like Tamie often. So he loaned me his blue 1986 Hyundai Excel that Friday night. I mention the car’s color because it — like my future bride’s smile and everything else about that night — remains etched in my memory.

Tamie and I celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary this spring.

Read the full column.

This column appears in the online magazine Religion Unplugged.

Photo provided by Bobby Ross Jr.