From the Beginning

I guess the best place to start with any story is the begining.  I thought I had told my children how I met their father and how our romance grew, but I must have given them the Readers Digest version!  I will attempt to recall those events from ancient history that hopefully will help them as they seek their future mates.  This is actually going to be good for my husband and me to recall those events and feelings that drew us together.  It is always good to remember what sparked the fire that has lasted for 33 years! (wow! it doesn't seem that long) 

We met at the end of my senior year in high school and G was in college just finishing his sophomore year.  We lived in a very small town and there was never much for young people to do.  The night we met, I was on a date with another young man, my brother's best friend.  He was a great guy, but to me he was like another brother.  Our date was not going as he had hoped, so we rode through town to see who was there to talk with.  In this small town, every group of friends had their own corner where they met.  My date knew G and decided to stop by his corner to say hello.  I had never met G but I knew he was friends with my brother.  At this point of the night, I was not interested in talking to anyone; I just wanted to go home. When G came over to the car we were in, my date introduced me to G.  Now my date didn't use my name, he introduced me as D's sister. G's first words to me were, "So, you're Fortwright's sister".   Believe me that didn't impress me one bit!  I am one of 6 children and I have been know all my life as some one's sister. I do have a name and would love to be know by it, so both these guys were definitely off my radar by this time.  I didn't even notice what G looked like.  A week or so later, I got a phone call from someone named G asking me to go out with him.  He had so not impressed me that he had to remind me when we had met.  I had plans for that weekend so I told him I could not go out with him;  he asked if he could call and talk later.  Knowing he was a friend of my brother, I said yes.  When I told my brother who had called me, he was not pleased.  My brother had a policy of not allowing his friends to date his sister (and he was big enough to enforce it!).  His best friend had just ignored his rule and now G was doing the same thing.  At least that's what I thought was the source of his irritation.  I found out later that they, my brother and G, had some problems with each other in the past.  Well, G called later the next week and asked me out again.  This time, my parents had something for me to do so I could not go out on a date that weekend either.  So G said he would call again.  The third time he called, I was free and we went on our first date.  I later learned that he had a three strike rule.  He would ask a girl out for three times and if she said no all three times, he wouldn't ask again.  According to him, I almost missed getting to go on a date with him!  (silly engineering mind)

Our first date was in May after my high school graduation.  We went to the nearest city to dinner and a movie.  When he arrived, I asked my father to answer the door because I couldn't remember what he looked like! My bedroom was on the front of the house and I could watch as he went by to the living room.  I don't know what I was going to do if I didn't like the way he looked!  I don't know if he really remembered what I looked like either. (He says my beauty awed him, but I think that is just him yakking)  His car, as with most cars then, had a bench seat in the front seat. ( I think he bought it just so his date could sit beside him!)  I got in on his side and sat in the middle.  When he got in, he put his hand on my knee!!!  I was not amused and promptly removed his hand from my knee!  That didn't deter him, he just moved his arm to the seat behind me.   Well, that was just the beginning.  I hadn't been around anyone as forward as him, so I just kept my mouth shut.  The more he tried to get me to talk, the less I talked.  G doesn't give up easily, so he tried telling me the craziest things just to get a reaction out of me.  Little did he know he almost got the wrong reaction.  By the end of the date, he was telling me that the reflectors on the road were turned on and off by pygmies that lived in the ditches.  I sat there in silence trying to decide if I was with a crazy person or if he was just pulling my leg.  I wondered why in the world I had agreed to go out with him and how I was going to get back home!  I really didn't know whether I wanted to go anywhere with him or not ever again!  Fortunately for G, I decided I would give him another chance. G loves to tell people that we met on a street corner!  I have to quickly tell them that he was the one on the street because he conveniently leaves that out!                 

A Challenge!

I have been issued a challenge by one of my daughters. In talking with her last night, she asked me to tell her how my husband and I came to the decision that we should get married.  She knows we wrote letters to each other while we were dating, but she hasn't read them.  I have always been a little hesitant to let my children read them because they are so personal (and I don't remember what all we said!).  I kept all the letters my husband sent me, but didn't realize he had kept mine until years after we were married.  That was exciting to me because it gives a more complete record of our "conversations".  We decided that I would write excerpts from those letters here and maybe an explaination of what we were thinking and decisions we were making at that time.  I have been asked by all my children how I knew their Daddy was "the right one", but I haven't been able to successfully answer their questions.  I am hoping that through the letters and narration on the part of my husband and I, it will help them find the answers they seek.  We certainly didn't do everything right, but maybe they can learn from our mistakes.  It will let them know how much their parents love each other and sought to make a home from that love for us all.  Let me know what you think of this idea!  Any feedback you give will certainly help!

Time is March-ing on!

I can't believe we are at the end of March already!  We have been so busy getting the house ready to sell, I haven't had time to blog or think, even!   The kids just left after their spring break and the house seems empty once again.  I am getting better at watching them leave, but it is still hard.  The last few weeks have been hard.  On March 6th my father passed away.  It felt like it was sudden, but he had been in poor health for a year.  I guess you never really are ready even if you are expecting it to happen.  He had been doing pretty well and then suddenly the call came that he was back in the hospital.  They thought it was pneumonia at first, but actually it was his heart shutting down.  All of us, his six children and his wife, were there when he went home.  The whole day he had spent time talking to each of us and telling us what he wanted us to do.  It is sad and heartwarming at the same time to watch someone who knows his time is very short.  Anyway, we each had time with him to say goodbye.  I don't know if all of us realized it was goodbye at the time, but looking back it was a great gift he gave to us. 

My father wouldn't have won a "father of the year" prize.  He was a very hard man and seemed to have a tough time showing his love for his family.  To him, providing a home was showing love and maybe it is, I just sometimes wished he would just have given us great big hugs and told us he was proud of us.  There were times in my life when I didn't like him very much, but as I got older, I learned to accept how he was and to love him not for what he did, but for who he was...the father God placed in my life.  Growing up, I heard him say over and over that he didn't think you could know for sure that you were going to heaven when you die until you died.  In his words," you just have to hope you have been good enough and the Man upstairs lets you in".  I accepted Christ as Lord of my life when I was 11 years old and from that day I would tell him how you could be sure and he would argue that you couldn't know.  It really bothered me to think he would not be in heaven with me for eternity.  Over the years, Daddy went to church, was involved in the leadership of the church they went to, and talked with many people about the assurance of your salvation. But he still had no assurance of that Gift.   As I was driving to the hospital, I ask God to allow someone to try one more time to get Daddy to understand and be sure he was saved.  Well, one of my sisters was given that privilege.  There were only two of them there and Daddy said he was leaving.  My sister asked where he was going and he said he hoped it was heaven.  My sister said that wasn't good enough, he needed to be sure.  He said he didn't know how to be sure and she told him it was simple, just ask God for his free gift. He has heard this so many times before, but I really think this was the first time it really sunk in.  He prayed the prayer and my sister said he had such a peaceful look on his face that it was amazing.  He wanted to go on then, but she urged him to wait for the rest of us to get back.  He held on until everyone was there (we had been in and out all day).  It was relatively peaceful at the end and the relieved look on his face was beautiful. 

There were a lot of feelings as we stood in that room, anger, hatred, love, and a longing for what could have been;  all rolled into one big ball.  What could all our lives have been if he had had a relationship with the Lord Jesus all of our lives.  The oldest 4 of us had a different mother that passed away when we were very young.  I was the youngest of her children and I have often wondered how my life would have been different if she had lived.  I do firmly believe that God knows what is best for us in the test of time so the events in my life I believe are used for my good and the furtherance of God's kingdom.  

It is an odd feeling to know that both your parents are gone and you are now the "older" generation.  My step-mother, who is the only mother I remember, is still here and very much a part of our lives.  There are a lot of feelings to sort out in the coming weeks and I hope you don't get bored with reading about them.  This is my only place to fully express what I am feeling.