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Never in my life (and I am 60 years old) have I seen two people who loved each other more than Jack and my mother. Rarely have I encountered two people who fit together better than they did.

Really? Many biographers have said that your mother's marriage to Lewis was such a surprise because they were so different. They paint Lewis as a pensive, withdrawn, polite British scholar, and your mother as an opinionated and blunt American. Was that true?

Absolutely not. My mother was certainly forthcoming, open, and blunt. But so was Jack. From my experience, anyone who described Jack as pensive, withdrawn, and British (in that particular sense) never knew the man at all. I think the trouble here is that you are starting out with a basic misconception about Jack and Mother. This is the trouble with trusting the works of poor biographers.

I think perhaps this image of him stems largely from the fictional character that playwright William Nicholson presented in Shadowlands. It was brilliant writing to be sure. But Jack was an ebullient, outgoing, loud, and joyful man, bursting with life and laughter. He was quite able to be blunt, and it gained him some enemies here and there among minor minds. Even when deep in his grief over Mother's death, Jack was not "withdrawn," but wore his grief visibly, sometimes to my embarrassment.

British he was in all the best senses, but without the emotionless coldness usually implied by that expression.

So they were more alike than people knew?

Yes. I only once saw either of them angry with the other, and that was when Jack was annoyed with Mother for over-stressing herself. Although it was a short marriage, they lived it with a rare intensity of devotion.

Do you think that's because they both understood how short their time together would be?

Jack and Mother both knew that her remission was a gift from God and not likely to last long, so they crammed as much life into the short time they had as they possibly could. They flew (for the first time for either of them) to Ireland and Greece, fulfilling lifelong dreams for both of them.

They spent hours walking and talking together. They often read aloud to each other, or played Scrabble. Or just silently enjoyed each other's comfortable company.

Both were deeply committed to Christ, both were brilliantly intelligent, both were widely read in most of the same genres of literature, both had prodigious memories. In addition they shared a love of plain speaking and forthright conversation. How could they fail to fit together?

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