On this day 54 years ago, I married my sweet husband.
We only knew each other a little less than 3 months.
I told my sister I was going to marry him from the moment I saw him.
He was in the Honor Guard (they march and guard the tomb of the Unknown soldier. They also bury military buried at Ft Myer, Va).
It was during the Vietnam War. I was dating two other guys at the same time.
Most of you were around back then. Most of the males (younger ones) were in the military.
My sister and I went to a dance at Ft Myer miltary base. We loved to dance. It was light-hearted fun.
My sister went over to my honey and said "My sister over there would like to dance with you".
He said, "OK, but first I have to fight this guy outside".
The other guy didn't show up so he came back in. He walked over to me and said, "You wanna dance?"
I acted all surprised and said, "Yes...sure ...but I don't like to dance slow".
He said, "Neither do I". We were both lying. We later admitted we were worried about dancing slow with someone we didn't know.
We intended to get married after 1 month but since we wanted to get married in the cute little church at Ft Myer, we had to wait because they were burying so many people there.
We sweated out if he would be sent to Vietnam, but they had him staring in the Torchlight Tatoo there, so that kept him here.
We waited on purpose 7 years to have a child. We were so in love and wanted to wait until I could stay home with the child/children.
Life was amazing. I'm a firm believer you can do anything you put your mind to. He worked 2 jobs and went to University at the same time. I worked at the Pentagon.
Personality-wise we are like night and day. But we made it work because the love was so strong.
We had the same middle name, the same blood type (a little rare), and the same social security number except for the last 3 numbers. He was born all the way on the West Coast and I was born all the way on the East Coast. I was 6 months older than him.
How can you not feel like you're married to your soul mate when so much is similar?
He died in my arms in 2004. I'm lucky there too. You see, I wasn't supposed to be home, but went back in house because I'd forgotten something.
I heard him hit the floor. It sounded like a big box had been dropped. I didn't usually call to him when he was in the office because he might have been on a business call. But something said to go check on him.
This was a man who'd never been sick and only too one pill. They never found out why he died.
I rolled him over and did CPR. I was lucky because I was able to put my lips on his as I did CPR. My air was going into him. I saw his chest go up as I pressed my lips to his and pushed my air into him. But it came out as quickly as I breathed it into him.
I knew he was gone. I kept (between breaths) saying, "Please don't leave me. Damit, you said you'd never leave me. I can't breathe at the thought of loosing you."
But he was already gone. Just as quickly as you can blink your eyes, my life changed that day.
But I have 3 beautiful (inside and out) daughters and 8 (7 living) grandchildren, one has his name.
He left a legacy that not a lot of people have.
When we had his wake to celebrate his life, a lot of people showed up. His past business partner made a video of him and our girls set to music (his and my girl's favorite songs).
So many people got up and told some of the crazy stories about him and the two of us. My girls got up and said what it was like being the daughter of such an amazing man.
He volunteered as a driver for the American Red Cross. He drove people who didn't have a way to get to Chemo treatments to and from the place.
One young woman had bone cancer. She eventually lost the use of her legs. He'd pick her up and carry her to and from the car.
The volunteer from the cancer society talked about how he'd even change flights to Florida (where he built houses) just so he could drive people.
These are all the things I think about today (our anniversary) and in a few weeks is the day he died.
We'd just celebrated our anniversary and spent 1 week at the beach with family and friends. The only way to describe it was amazing and magical.
If you got through this, thank you. I just felt like it was a good way to acknowledge the man who made my life so wonderful.
I've already heard from my girls today. My grandchildren talk about him like he was still alive. We relate all the fun things we did and the crazy stories we'd tell them before they were born.
I'm sure many of you have stories to tell your grandchildren. I hope you do.
When you give children a sense of family and how lucky they are to live in this country and the freedom to make their life what they want it to be, you are giving them the foundation for a happy life.
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