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I lost my best friend.
My husband, Matthew Osborne, is gone.
I still expect him to walk through the door, any door, or walk down the stairs. I’m waiting for something that according to facts – something I typically thrive on and don’t work against me in this manner – is not going to happen.
We met at our first real job at the Lake City Reporter in Florida. He noticed me first, as he had already been working there for nine months before I was graduating and needed employment.
But that wasn’t the first time we could have possibly met. We learned later there were three times prior to that where we were at the same place at the same time – not an easy thing since he went to The George Washington University in D.C. and I went to Flagler College in St. Augustine, Fla. – and it was if we were meant to find each other.
I sat diagonally behind him. He was a sports reporter, I was news.
We quickly became friends. Then best friends. Then he realized he was in love with me, and since I was the sensible one in the moment, I rejected him at first.
Then 9/11 happened.
He had just moved apartments, and the cable guy was hooking up his television that morning. I was at work as the early reporter, and once our editor, David Brown (publisher of the Cherokee Scout today), snapped me out of my shock of what I was seeing on the newsroom television, I was out at our local airport covering a plane that took off from Boston and was redirected to land there.
When Matthew came into work later, he said it was like in the movie Superman II, when Clark Kent learns that Lois is at the Eiffel Tower.
“Well, jeepers, Mr. White. That’s terrible.” “That’s why they call them ‘terrorists,’ Kent.”
That day made me realize I should take up his offer, and that weekend we went on a date, in another county.
By the end of March, we were engaged. We got married the following year. A Superman pin was my something blue.
We worked well as a team together, and I even helped him transition from sports to covering news.
We had different strengths and weaknesses, which helped us both manage our home and support each other in our work. He was editor of The Northeast Georgian in Cornelia, Ga., and I knew what they were working on because we’d bounce ideas off each other.
He never lost his love for covering sports, and was still often seen on the sidelines at high school football games. (He was there covering Habersham County’s team when we won last year.)
He took care of me, and on our last weekend together he drove me to local wineries where I needed to take photos for last week’s newspaper. I asked him to come with me so we could spend the time together.
He was my Superman. It can’t be real that he’s gone.
Samantha Sinclair is editor of the White County News in Cleveland, Ga. She was previously a staff writer with the Cherokee Scout and Andrews Journal. Matthew Osborne, editor of the Scout and Journal from 2014-19, passed away suddenly on Aug. 13.