Kent Monson

       Let me please say a few words about my sister, Kathleen Mary"s late husband, Kent Monson, who passed too soon last Christmas Eve.  I remember him first as the guy she was seeing when she and bro Bob were room-mates in the Avenues in old Salt Lake City.
       I can't remember how many Fleurys he was confronted with in the group that included me,  but I know he withstood it...the way Sean Connery or John Wayne would have...and hung in there.
       The next couple of times I saw him were at his wedding day with Kathy,  where I was a very minor player, but I could see that my folks liked him.  Later, my wife, Laurie, and her brother, Steve, and myself went to Utah to visit my family.  On the way to Bountiful, we stopped in Elko to see them.  Kathy was glowing, and Kent was quiet but confident...I was impressed.
       My life got a little intense shortly thereafter: suffice it to say, Emmy Award = divorce.  The "Ron Fleury Loose Cannon" episode is the blog of another day.
        The next time I saw Kent,  new main squeeze, Katie Simons and I were in Utah during ski season.  I fancied myself an athlete who could master skiingThe sad thing was,  like Ex-wife, Laurie,  Kate was not so comfortable on skis.  Truth be told,  our big ski week blew up when Katie broke her ankle on the bunny slope.  I don't know how I was coping(obviously not so hot), but Kent showed up(as ordered,I suspect) to take me back up to the Wasatch Range; where the manly art of skiing could still be practiced...To say that I acquitted myself well would be overstating it,  but I did survive.  Kent, by the way, was at home,  his only worry was his dumbass bro-in-law, yours truly.  The trip up the hill and back were our bonding time.  Let me tell you all that our friendship started there.
        I am a Fleury,  I have some idea what has come before.   Kate Simons and Laurie Amato notwithstanding, genetically, the line I come from is "formidable",  but Kent, was up to the challenge.
       I recall a Christmas season at about that time, where I found a little wooden box from Mongolia, I think.  Since He was the recipient of that year's gift from moi,  I was the giftee of a stein, from the Gods!