Our Love Story

Music is
Moonlight Sonata
by Ludwig Von Beethovan

Wither thou goest, I will go
Wither thou lodgest I will Lodge
Thy people will be my people
and thy God will be my God.
Ruth 1:16

On May 9th we celebrate the anniversary of the day we each married our best friend. Many have tried to tell me over the years that marriage will destroy a friendship, but I beg to disagree. If a marriage is to live and grow, what better place for it to take root than in the fertile soil of shared interests, shared boks, shared movies, shared conversation. If you have nothing to talk about, how can a relationship grow?

I've hear all that talk about fire and sparks and passion not being there with a friend - well my answer is - you haven't made the right friend yet!!

When we met at an Armed Forces Day Dance in Sacramento, California, I was recovering from a bad relationship and he had just been jilted. Neither of us was looking for a long term relationship, or even a short term romance. But that night there were fire and sparks, and they scared us both. We only danced a couple of times that night, mostly we sat in the refreshment area and talked and talked and talked.

The next day we went to the air show on base and watched the Thunderbirds perform, and we talked some more.

This was what I hungered for, a kindred spirit as Anne Shirley would say, and I later learned he felt the same way.

He called several times that week and the following Saturday night - on the 8th day of our acquaintance, he proposed!!! I was flabbergasted and I think he was suprised also. We decided to postpone my answer.

That summer has a golden haze around it in my memory. There was the day we walked through San Francisco's China Town, where he bought me an ivory ring. We rode the cable cars, laughing with abandon as the wind blew my hair in his eyes. We explored all the hidden hollows of Golden Gate Park and had tea in the Japanese Tea Gardens. We went to the Redwood forest where we walked hand in hand through the towering awe inspiring giants. We sat on the beach and watched the waves roll in. We went to Yosemite Park and climbed Nevada Falls and viewed the valley from the top of Glacier Point. And through it all we talked and talked and talked.

At the end of the summer, on a starry night with the milky way filling the sky over lake Berryessa, I told him that I would accept his proposal for I loved him with all my heart. But we could not marry right then, we had to wait.

He left a couple weeks later for an 18 month overseas tour and I returned to school. It was a long 18 months, but daily letters and audio tapes helped and of course I had my classes to keep me busy.

Finally the day arrived and he flew into Travis AFB. I was overjoyed to have him back, my friend, my love. He was only in town a few days and he had to go east to visit his family. When he told his parents of his plan to marry me, there was immediate resisitance from his mother as there had been from mine.

When he got back to California again, we decided we had waited long enough. On a Saturday morning, we gathered up his old Air Force buddy, and my college friend, drove the 200 miles over the mountains to Reno and got married, each to their very best friend.