Loving Gilbert Blythe

When I read the news yesterday of Jonathan Crombie's death, a little part of me died, too. Crombie played Gilbert Blythe, destined love of Anne Shirley, in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation production of Anne of Green Gables. 

No doubt, Crombie launched 10,000 teenage girl crushes with his sensitive performance. I was one of the many who fell hard for Gilbert Blythe.

Full disclosure, I've never read the beloved novel, only watched its miniseries adaptation – many, Anne on PBS, and I was instantly besotted.

It's about time, Anne!

many times. I suppose the fact that I haven't read the book should be embarrassing, but I'm letting it go. I was in junior high the first time I watched

Of course Anne was enchanting, and Richard Farnsworth will forever hold a place in my heart for his tender portrayal of Matthew. I wanted a bosom friend like Diana Barry. I even liked prickly Marilla and fussy gossip Rachel Lynde. However, I loved no one more than Gilbert.

Oh, how I swooned for his beautiful face, his soft voice, his dark hair and eyes. Physically appealing though he was, that wasn't really what got me, nor any other moony teenage girl, I suspect. It was the way Gilbert loved Anne.

Perhaps it spoke to where I was in my life when I watched. I was awkward and unpopular. Gilbert Blythe and Jake Ryan of Sixteen Candles offered me a sliver of hope. Anne Shirley and Molly Ringwald's Samantha Baker weren't the prettiest girls in their class. They were more like me, and Gilbert and Jake, respectively, weren't taken in by pretty and popular. Gilbert wasn't interested in Josie Pye, and that vapid blonde bored Jake. These guys were willing to look deeper.

When Gilbert confesses to Anne, "I've loved you as long as I can remember," I was a goner. It was the most romantic thing I'd ever seen.

In a plot device as old as time, Anne (who, let's face it, really is a little too into highfalutin mumbo jumbo) at first rejects Gilbert. Oh, stupid, daft Anne. How could you? Gilbert, choose me, I and thousands of others thought. I will love and appreciate you as you deserve!

I could watch again and again the scene where Gilbert recovers from his near-death scarlet fever affliction and Anne finally comes to her senses and chooses him, I'd watch all six hours of the miniseries any day for that final scene and long-awaited kiss.

"It'll be three years before I finish medical school," Gilbert says. "Even then there won't be any diamond sunbursts or marble halls."

"I don't need diamond sunbursts or marble halls," stupid Anne finally realizes. "I just want you." About time!

I think the magic of it is that we all dream of having someone love us as purely as Gilbert loves Anne, someone who sees the true us.

I'm pushing 40 now. Perhaps my own story wasn't filled with as much romance, but I've long since found my own true love, one who sees and appreciates the true me. No diamond sunbursts or marble halls needed.

I still watch Anne every few years, and it never fails to transport me. I think I'll sit down and watch again soon.

Goodbye, Jonathan Crombie, gone too soon. Thank you for breathing life into the incomparable Gilbert Blythe and giving a girl like me hope.