George Carlin Was Lucky In Love
Jun 29th, 2008 by Renee Michaels
George Carlin
& Sally Wade
I’m sure that most of us have heard about George Carlin passing on June 22 from heart failure. While we know that he was a thoroughly irreverent comedian, infamous for his “Seven Words You Can’t Say On TV,” what you might not know is that George Carlin was a happily married man twice and without a divorce. How many of us get that lucky even once?
His first true love was Brenda Hosbrook who he married in 1961 and had his only child, Kelly, with her. She died in 1997 from liver cancer. Shortly before she died, George said this about his marriage: “Lest you wonder, personally, I am a joyful individual with a long, happy marriage and a close and loving family.” (Brain Droppings, 1997). I bet that would surprise most!
In 1998 he met Sally Wade, who he married that year. What he said about meeting Sally: “This happened like a thunderbolt. Everything about the relationship is what I call perfect. It’s a gift. It’s an absolute gift from the cosmos that we found each other.” And “She’s smart and funny and great-looking. And she and I have this thing where we kind of like inhabit a bubble, and it’s like the whole universe is ours. It’s a wonderful feeling.”
While George found fault with nearly everything on this planet, he surely didn’t with the women he married and loved. His feeling about marriage was that:
“Sex without love has its place, and it’s pretty cool, but when you have it hand in hand with deep commitment and respect and caring, it’s nine thousand times better…Given the right reasons and the right two people, marriage is a wonderful way of experiencing your life.”
Even though it’s hard for me to imagine myself married again, I still feel that staying in a long-term committed relationship with a person brings insights about life, love and relationships that goes beyond words. You must experience it, to learn and know someone at a nearly cellular level, to plunge the depths and brush the sky with them: there simply is no other way but to do the time.
What are your thoughts about the possibility of true love striking twice? Do you feel there’s only one soulmate?