“Be faithful unto death … ”         Revelation 2:10

Fifty years ago I met the love of my life at the Casino.

(I know, doesn’t sound very romantic, does it?) The “Casino” was a snack bar in the Portage Point Inn where the kids could get soft drinks and snacks, listen to the jukebox, and play games like ping-pong and pinball. It was the favorite evening hangout of the teenagers that came to the little northern Michigan town from all over the Midwest in the summer.

When my family arrived after twelve hours of driving from St. Louis, it was the first place I wanted to go, knowing I’d find friends there that I hadn’t seen since the last summer.

I already knew Marty’s brother Dave, who was ten days younger than I was, but I had only seen his older brother from a distance and had been…