Our marriage on April 22, 1972 is a testimony of God’s faithfulness. Our marriage was made in heaven, just like thunder and lightning.
Not many of our friends, especially not our acquaintances, know that in 1965 when I was in Jr. High school in Cherry Valley, California, Danny was 100 miles away in Norwalk marrying his high school sweetheart.
Not too long after that Danny was drafted by the US Army and served two years, of which thirteen months were in Vietnam. I am so very proud of him, even though our country didn’t show appreciation at the time to anyone for serving our country during the Vietnam War.
But then when I was a senior in high school, his wife of five years divorced him.
Immediately after graduation from high school I got an apartment in Riverside (whoopee the BIG city!) with my besty girl friend. Connie was an extremely outgoing gal, the type of teenager with a bigger heart than brain.
Even though he lived in Huntington Beach, Danny was attempting to sell Encyclopedia Britannica at a booth just inside San Bernardino’s White Front Store, a store similar to Wal-Mart nowadays. Connie’s gullible effervescence never met a stranger, nor was stranger-danger even an expression back then. Danny greeted her as she entered the store, as I assume he did every customer, and she stopped to chat with him. He asked for her phone number. Of course she obliged. It was our apartment landline that was in her room as that was the only form of a telephone in those days. Danny didn’t waste any time and actually called her. They went on two casual dates, but he seemed to hang out at our place often.
A few days after their first date, I met Danny as I rushed home to brush my teeth during my lunch break. He was sitting in our living room as I swiftly past in front of him totally unaware how closely he was watching me in my little mini skirt. He continued to come over and hang out with Connie, and me, but was dating Connie so I didn’t think anything of his visits for those couple of weeks.
“Connie is at work”, I told him after answering the phone one evening. In his extremely masculine voice he calmly replied, “I know.” Gulp…. as I slid down the wall to sit on the floor. He had called to talk to me. At some point within the next week or two he told me it was love at first sight for him.
Looking back, now I see his personality propensity to avoid confrontations. During that initial phone conversation he said he wanted to date me instead of Connie and wanted me to tell her. Say what? But of course that was not my reaction as an 18 year old girl. So I agreed to do so. And she was totally fine.
You see, I had always totally been myself with him. I never tried to impress him; he was dating my friend and the thought never even crossed my mind in the slightest. Actually, in retrospect, I guess I didn’t really care what he thought of me. Wow, I wish I still had that little of concern about what people think of me now over forty-five years later.
Danny said he had never met anyone who had as quick a come-back for his comments, sarcasm, quick wit or musings as I did.
To this day he still says the same thing about me.
We met the day after Thanksgiving, were engaged the week after Christmas and married that April.
Statistically, our marriage should never have lasted for at least these reasons:
-I thought I was in love with another “older man” (also Danny’s age 24 years) who, in hindsight, was an alcoholic working to become an American Airlines pilot…. eecks.
-I was abused by my father.
-Although not raised in a Christian home, I came to know Jesus as my Savior at age 16.
-Danny was not a Christian and I don’t recall ever really discussing anything about faith.
-Each of my relatives for three generations, except one aunt, had been divorced including my parents, both sets of grandparents, great-grandparents, my only sibling Tami, and even my own husband.
On a positive note, stay tuned for my post as to why I think our marriage has lasted almost 45 years, and counting. And no, it’s not because still to this day “we both like me”, although it is true.
“And the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him’…the Lord God…brought her unto the man.” -Genesis 2:18, 20
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