Kilted to Kick Cancer Spotlight: Husband In Law

Each day from now until the end of September, I'm going to feature one of the bloggers participating in the Kilted to Kick Cancer fundraising challenge, so I suppose it's only fitting that I begin with the newest member of the blogosphere and the youngest KTKC spokesman out there – Husband In Law and Boy Spawn.

 

Those of you who read my blog are familiar with the exploits of Husband In Law, my ex-wife's current husband. Obviously, given the history between us, we haven't always been the best of friends, but as we (only half) jokingly inform people who raise an eyebrow at our relationship, it's been several years since I looked at his head through a rifle scope, and we're both grown enough men to let the past stay in the past. My ex and I both bear equal responsibility for the end of our marriage, but at the end of the day, she and I are still best friends, and what's important is that HIL treats her and KatyBeth well. 

Back when Angola State Penitentiary was looking for an EMS operations director and someone to teach a paramedic course, he recommended me for the job. When his colonel asked him how he knew me, HIL chuckled and replied, "Well, it's funny you should ask. He's my girlfriend's ex-husband. I'm the guy she left him for."

"And you'd take a paramedic class from this guy?" the colonel asked incredulously.

"He might still hate my guts," HIL replied, "but he's professional enough to leave that at the classroom door, and there's no one else I'd rather have as my paramedic instructor."

After that, his colonel jokingly dubbed us the "Husbands in Law," and the nickname stuck.

He started his blog solely for the purpose of supporting the cause of Kilted to Kick Cancer, and seriously doubting he'd have anything worthwhile to say in the blogosphere. He did it knowing he'd be starting with zero readership and a much smaller support network than the rest of us, and despite serious trepidation about wearing a kilt in public. He's endured quite a few stares and outright ridicule – this is redneck country, after all – and he has weathered the guffaws and raised eyebrows, and used the opportunity to raise awareness of prostate cancer. He endured me hanging around his house for several days, sewing kilts until the wee hours of the morning.

He did all that because he's a good guy, and he wanted to help out.

And in doing all that, he even got the Boy Spawn involved, because the kid wanted to rock a kilt just like his daddy. So, we sacrificed the material we were going to use for pockets to make matching kilts for the Boy Spawn.

Sadly, his mother forbade him wearing it regimental style. I think she had nightmares of him running around with easy access to his tweeter while wearing a garment that barely reached his knees. 

Knowing the Boy Spawn, that was probably a wise decision, even if it does deprive his daddy of a sure source of comedic blog fodder.

He's a husband, a father, an EMT, a corrections officer and a deputy sheriff, and you can support his fundraising efforts for the Prostate Cancer Foundation here, and LiveStrong here. Drop by his blog and tell him you support what he's doing, and drop a few bucks in the hat for cancer research while you're there. If even 20 people who read this donate only $5 each, that's $100 toward a very worthy cause. Every little bit helps.

He's the Husband In Law, and he's Kilted to Kick Cancer.