Ina Masters

Ina was one of God’s rarest miracles, a strong, loving, giving, and creative wife and mother. To say that she was the love of my life would be to vastly understate our unique bond. We lived and worked all over the world together, from the frigid plains of North Dakota to the jungles of Northeast Thailand, from 130 miles behind the Iron Curtain in the walled-city of Berlin to the tiny island of Okinawa in the Eastern Pacific. She was always by my side to make sure that wherever we were living, life would be an adventure to be shared and remembered. She had the creativity to convert a minimal shelter into a warm home where we could shut out the world and take comfort after long days and frequent absences. When our military days were over we put our dog tags away in a special box on a single chain to represent the unbreakable bond we shared and the things we had been through together.

The opportunity for a new adventure in California came to us in 1987, and we once again struck the tents and moved, confident that as long as we were together there would be nothing we could not overcome. We were three this time, with a daughter in second grade. As usual Ina set about to make sure that our family had a warm, friendly home, full of love and laughter…a shelter from the problems of everyday life. And the adventure was all that we knew it would be, from the Champs Elysees in Paris to the Opera House in Sydney, to the crowded Souk and empty desert of the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Throughout her life, Ina asked little for herself and gave much to others. Her warm smile and wonderful laughter brightened the life of our daughter and of me, and seeing how happy she had made us was reward enough for her. No one could be more giving or forgiving than Ina, and no one could be happier than Ina when she saw her friends and family smile.

God has now decided that once again it is time to strike the tents, but this time Ina must go alone, leaving the world, and me, greatly saddened by our loss. I am almost unbearably burdened by our separation but sustained in the knowledge that it is only temporary, as it has always been. We will be reunited for eternity someday, and Ina and I will start a whole new adventure together.

Until that day I will cherish the memory of my beautiful wife.

Mike M.