The Next Best Thing

How well do I know this couple pictured here with my wife?



Probably about as well as I know anybody in the world.

Sue and Julian Whatley lived across the street from our family all of my growing up years in Reynolds.

They have two daughters and they are like my sisters. We love each other too.


I visit with Sue and Julian often. I will sit with them for two hours and it will seem like 10 minutes. I will tell them anything and they want to hear every bit of it. There is no doubt they are my second set of parents.

They were very close friends with my parents. There is no telling how many hours our two families spent together growing up. My parents and Sue and Julian ate together often. All of us kids would play outside or in another part of the house while they visited.

The funny thing is I don’t think I ever remember going out to a restaurant with them to eat. We ate in each others home. And we all know each other so well because of it.

When I go to their house I know the light switch for the hall bathroom is on the wall outside the door. I don’t even have to ask… been there so many times.

When I got married our rehearsal dinner was held at their house. It was supposed to be held around the pool but it poured down rain that night and we had to eat inside. They had tables set up all over their house. Kathy and I and a few others ate our rehearsal dinner meal in Sue and Julian’s bedroom.

We went on camping trips together. We pulled campers all over North Georgia and North Carolina. We cooked and we laughed and created lifelong memories and lifelong relationships.

Tonight I am in Houston Texas. Sometimes I wake up and wonder where I am. Sometimes I cannot remember when I get out of the bed which way the bathroom is because I stay in so many hotel rooms.

But when I was growing up in Reynolds I always knew when I woke up and walked out the front door that Sue and Julian and Debbie and Donna were right across the street.

I have had the opportunity to meet a ton of folks. Many of them I have met while at all the functions I have been fortunate enough to be asked to speak. I also work with some of the greatest people in the world. We work hard, we laugh together and I spend many hours with them. I’m enjoying the relationships I have built. And I am thankful for each one.

But there is no way to even compare those relationships with the relationship I have with people like Sue and Julian Whatley.

I can tell you this. This couple is a huge part of who I am today.

And there is something very special about walking into their house and sitting down and talking about everything under the sun.

It’s like sitting down and talking to my own mom and dad.

They are not here anymore.

But I’m very thankful that Sue and Julian are.

And it's the next best thing.