The Love Story of DabeacH

First of all. This short tale is dedicated to my best friend, lover, and coach... My wife Janine. I must admit, of all the web pages I have designed, this was the easiest to design...Yet, the hardest to write. Where do I begin? So much has happened! So much love. So much tragedy. So many tears of laughter and sorrow. The river keeps flowing (The Boss) and we can't tell if we are boats against the current or just enjoying the ride. We have written this short tale in response to many questions from our "new" friends. It is intended to provide a small insight into the joys and happiness Janine and I share. Please enjoy and feel free to E-Mail us if you have comments. This is written by Michael. Janine's version (should she choose to write one) Will be on another set of pages. Let the tale begin.

We have so many people to thank for helping us find the path we are on. The most important person of all of them is, of course, a mutual friend who provided us the introduction. This person has requested anonymity, and as such, it is granted. Suffice to say, she did point out the pathway for us and together we have followed it ever since.

The first phone call was sheer excitement! One would never know that we are both extremely shy and introverted people. We have struggled all our lives to overcome the shyness. Thus we have a tendency to be somewhat extroverted. The first conversation lasted about 2 1/2 hours. Random wanderings laced with subtle probes as to physical, mental and spiritual issues. We shared many areas in common and decided to meet that weekend. Saturday at 6:30. We discussed many options for places to go. Dinner? Movies?(UGH) Drinks? Picnic? Bingo. A picnic it would be. A sunset picnic. What a great idea! We decided to meet at my place and I told Janine I would pack a basket of "Special Things" for our first date. Yikes!! I had one day to get ready.

I am a great lover of music, and as such I have an extensive collection of CDs. I set out to make a "Janine" tape for our first date. What a project it turned out to be. Selecting music for someone I didn't know. Well I did it. (more on that later) I then set out for the local gourmet shop. Graul's in Ruxton Maryland has a very special place in my heart. I worked there four years while I was going to under graduate school. I knew they had the best of everything. Crab Pate, Truffle pate and other interesting things. I found enough special "things" to fill two picnic baskets. I was all ready. Cruised over to my favorite wine shop and picked up a few cases of My house sparkling wine. (M. Tribaut Blanc de Noir)`and I was set. Showered, primped and cleaned the place up. (Guys can be such slobs when they live alone). Alex, my 12 year old golden, was a small contributer to the mess. But, most of it was mine. A few hours doing a "PC" (Panic clean), and I was set to go. Time to sit and wait.

I thought this could be a really cool night or a big bust. I would find out at 6:30 that night. Couldn't wait! This was sheer torture. What have I done? Am I crazy? What will we talk about? What if she breaks out laughing when she sees me? Oh such awful images one can conjure up while sitting in anticipation. It would be here soon. Popped a bottle of sparkling wine, poured myself a glass, and sat back and enjoyed the tunes I had recorded for Janine. She will be here soon....

I didn't have to wait long. 6:15 and a shiny new red Miata pulled up out front. I peeked outside in anticipation. WOW!!! She's stunning. A purple silk blouse, french braided jet black hair, and a great big smile on her face. The best part was she was coming up my stairs. SHOWTIME! Alex, my golden, was the first to greet Janine. He was taught not to bark, yet, this time he let out a small "wuff" as the doorbell rang. I bolted to the door and let this wonderful women into my life for good. Alex took to her at once. He ran over and jumped up on her and licked her. That was some surprise, since he had been trained never to do that. I guess he sensed his new "MOM" was here. I introduced myself and told Alex to get down. I saw Janine had on shorts and I had on jeans. I said "Cool you're wearing shorts. I 'll be right back." I changed and we sat and had a glass of bubbly.

We chatted for a few minutes. Both feeling the chemistry sparking in the air. I thought to myself "This is going to be a great night". We decided to take the Miata...way cooler than a Jeep Cherokee. The problem was the picnic basket would not fit in the trunk. What to do? We took everything out of the basket and put it in the trunk. Off we went to Pretty Boy Reservoir for a sunset picnic.

We drove to Pretty Boy via the expressway. She had only been driving a 5 speed for a month. I certainly could tell. When we got off the expressway, I offered to drive the rest of the way. She was more than glad to have me drive. I guess I was making her nervous. (I've been driving 5 speeds all my life..Including a few Porsches) I said she drove like a little ol' lady. I cranked it up and we went tooling down the country roads to enjoy the evening. We found the perfect spot for a sunset picnic. Right near the water. We could see the sun slowly drop in the sky. Popped open a bottle of M. Tribaut and set up a blanket. Janine purred with delight as I opened each "Special Thing". Each seemed to elicit a more and more sultry response as they were presented for the evenings feast. Little did we know that this was the beginning of a life of "Special Things" for us to feast on.

The morning after came all to soon. We managed to enjoy a number of bottles of M. Tribaut while sitting out on my deck over looking the city. Sparks flew like shooting stars from the heavens. The evening passed so quickly and the night became dawn with this wonderful woman beside me. We both arose to find we were hung over. Not from the M. Tribaut, but from the high of falling in love. The magic spell was cast. No turning back now. I sat on the couch with this wondering look on my face saying "What am I going to do now?" I had planned my life out to enjoy many people and many things. This person came into my life and cast all that aside. My life would never be the same.

We slowly shook the cobwebs from our brains and set out for the day to enjoy the sunshine. Janine asked me to drive and we tooled off to places unknown. "Off to the country" I said as we pushed down the top on the Miata. The tape I had made for Janine was still in the tape deck. We pushed the volume to reasonable level and off we went. Janine just loved the tape. Her favorite song of the collection was Bon Jovi's "I was born to be your baby and you were born to be my man". She said it was the best song on the tape. It was going to be a great day. The sun shined brighter than it had in months for me. I often have wondered if it was the sun or just the shine from this new person in my life. We drove hither and yon for most of the day.

We arrived back at "Our" place around late afternoon. We sat on the deck and once again the sparks were flying. So much to say, so little time. I knew the time would come when she would have to leave. What would happen? Where would this go? The angst of a new relationship hung like a fog in the night. I had to bridge the issue. "Are you going home or are you staying here" I asked with the coolness of a six week old puppy. I didn't want her to leave. Yet, I knew she would have to make that decision. A long pause brought the words I'll never forget. "Well, I'll stay and see what happens." Could it be. I felt like I was on the show "Wonder Years". This voice was providing a running commentary about what was said and done. "Oh no! Now what have I done?" I guess I would find out...

The evening passed just as it had the night before. Searching, probing, listening, laughing and lots of smiling. It seemed our search was over. Our lives, in one quick cosmic finger snap, had been transformed from two lost souls meandering in the night, to a budding new star in a distant galaxy. The ever expanding knowledge of each other, only continued to bring, for both of us, a deeper understanding of the depth and reach of our finding each other. The words of conversation flowed with such ease. At times, we sat waiting for the other shoe to drop. The cosmic finger snap would decide that it was time to cast this budding relationship into a black hole, where so many relationships are cast off. We both had been there. So many times, we would found a lost soul in the dark, only to find, they had been lost for so long, the brightness of love staring them in the face, made them run into the darkness out of fear and despair.

The fears of galactic expulsion were quickly remitted to the sanctuary of the unknown. We realized if we spent our precious time together, on darkside pursuits, the new love we found was damned to be pushed that direction. We were in control. We would just enjoy the intoxication of the moment. The future be damned! We have this moment to enjoy...and we did. More bubbly...More Love...More tasty tidbits from our picnic...We both basked in the glow of a love found, not a love lost. The evening spun itself on its own energy. We kissed. We hugged. We listened to music. We allowed the evening to penetrate our beings. Our souls were free to pursue the one thing we both craved in life.... Love! We put "Somewhere in Time" in the cd player. Turned on the speakers in the bedroom and fell asleep in each others arms while John Williams cradled us in the passion and agony of his music....

Oh No! Monday morning. Would the spell be broken? Would we come back from the toils of work and find it had all been a dream? Would she come back? Had we woven our own magic castle for the weekend, only to find, the wicked ogre of lost love had stolen it from us? How do we keep the emotions intact and still face reality? So many questions and still even more responsibilities.

We both had to go to work that morning. We had set the alarm clock for 5:00am.(UGH) For sure, God was not up yet. Why did I have to get up? Is this the punishment we were to endure for having cast our fears to the wind and reaching out to someone else? Yes, it was. Coffee, morning paper, walking Alexander, showering, shaving and finally reality.

Janine had no clothes to wear to work. A pure look of dismay crossed her face. Problem resolution time. "Just wear my clothes" I said without hesitation. That was a mistake. She bolted to the closet and rummaging through the hangers like a "Sale" struck shopaholic at a Macy's sale the day after Thanksgiving. So many things to wear, which on should I wear? "You choose for me" I'll wear what you pick out. Well, I have traveled all over the world and have collected T-shirts from everywhere I've been. There were 100's of shirts to pick from. The perfect shirt was clear to me. "Terrace Tavern" Long Beach Island's finest low life bar. Bright Neon Pink. I thought that will teach her. She's way too conservative to wear this shirt. Wrong! She loved it. She pulled the T-shirt over her freshly washed hair and beamed a smile of delight. "Mine" That was settled. Off to work she went. I sat there in disbelief. She was gone from my life. My shirt, my love and most of all my life. I had put my heart in her hand with all the trust of a new fawn to his mother. Would she come back? Would she call me at work? Had this all been a dream? The "Wonder Years" comments were going into overtime. The comments were out of sync with the picture like a bad B movie of Godzilla versus ....????? Come on man catch up. I don't have all day. I gotta get to work and dream about the weekend past. I floated into the office and the evil bantering ensued. Michael was in love....They all knew. It was though I had a sign on my forehead in bright neon lights..... I'm Happy!!! Today I thought, what would the evening bring.....

The day seemed to wear on forever. I couldn't stand it. My face hurt from smiling. The clock ticked by until it was safe to "Blow this popsicle stand" and be out of here. I drove home to an empty house. What!! Well, it was around 2:30pm and I was a bit early. I waited and around 5:30pm she came "home". Cool. We spent the evening as we had the previous ones. Laughing, smiling, enjoying each other... WOW!!! Life sure did seem to have taken a positive step for us. Janine admitted she had been calling the answering machine just to hear my voice. "You have the sexiest phone voice I have ever heard." I thought that was a bit odd. She was happy, who was I to complain. We slept that night with the music soothing us to sleep and arose with the joy of being in each others arm once again.

The time seemed to pass ever so quickly. We continued to discover the joys of being together. Everyday brought new joys and pleasures. We spent a long weekend at Long Beach Island NJ, While we were there we made reservations for the upcoming Labor day weekend. Man it would be cool. Cruise out on Friday morning and be back on Tuesday. We had it all planned. However, there was a more important item that need attention. My birthday! I had already rented a stretch limo to go out to dinner and some dancing. All my friends were going. But as the time drew nearer, I noticed my vision was not as good as it had been. I also was experiencing massive headaches. Ah... just take some aspirin and it will go away. Well it didn't. The morning after my birthday, I awoke to discover I could see some "junk" floating inside my eyeball. I thought better get to the eye doctor. I made an appointment and He said he couldn't see anything wrong. He did recommend a specialist to see the next day. I kept my appointment and after much poking and testing... He indicated I may of Multiple sclerosis. He felt my symptoms could indicate that. He scheduled me for more tests the next day. Needless to say, Janine was not happy with this sudden advent of events. "I just found you....You can't be sick." Well , it sure didn't look good.

The doctor's appointment was a bit traumatic. He dilated one of my eyes and discovered the disc from the optic nerve was pressing severely into my eyeball. That was causing the blindness. He indicated I had to get a cat scan to find out what was the problem. It could be a tumor....cancer...he just didn't know. He called my physician to tell him of his plans. Dr. Tan said "Did you take his blood pressure?" The doctor hadn't so he told me to relax and he took my blood pressure. 220/160. "My God...You should be dead!!" He called my physician back and reported the results. Dr. Tan said "Tell him to go to the emergency room and I will meet him there." A'int no way I'm going to the hospital. I could be in there for a while. I had to go to LBI. I drove to Dr. Tan's office and he was shocked to see me. He said "I was just going to see you" "Well here I am" I said. The doctor administered some medication and it didn't help much. After 4 hours it had come down a slight amount. "Look I gotta go." sat up and he asked me what I planned to do. I would come back in the AM and see how it was going. Another doctor saw me in the morning and gave me a "Little Green Pill" in 1 hour my BP dropped to 180/130 It was coming down. Two days to go until we go to the beach. Hope it all comes true.......

The morning was filled with excitement. The joys of having each other had not waned one bit. Each night we fell asleep in each other's arms while music played softly in the background. Each morning brought continued thrills of rediscovering the person sleeping next to me. This morning was entirely different. We were off on our first true weekend sojourn. What would it be like? How would this "medical situation" affect the moment?

We loaded the Miata with the minimal amount of clothes, (Miatas are not a great traveling car) a cooler with ice and wine, a few(?) bottles of M. Tribaut and a stack of cassettes of music. We were off. I still remember the sun shining on us as we pulled onto the beltway and headed north. Madona's "I can't help falling in love" played on the tape player. this was going to be a great weekend.

We arrived at the hotel and checked in. To the beach!!! A small igloo cooler with white wine filled with ice. we were set to go. The day was perfect. We laughed and played in the water. Laid on the blanket and held each other as though we had the spirit and passion of two teenagers. The day at the beach passed quickly. The emotions and passion were building. Back to the room.....In our haste to find the bliss of enjoyment of each other, we had left the key to the hotel in the door lock. While we .....there came a knock on the door. Oh NO! Had we made too much noise? Could people really hear us. We tried to ignore it. Then a voice yelled "Hey, you left your key in the door". We looked at each other and laughed. Talk about tossing caution to the wind...

The rains came on Saturday...off to the shops. Janine needed a new bathing suit, sun glasses.....etc. She sure can shop. Lunch here...a new T-shirt, a drink there...a new T-shirt... every where a new T-shirt. Since she wore my T-shirt to work, it was sorta like buying work clothes.(yeah right) Each day she went into work, her fellow employees would check out her T-shirt. Janine had, thus far, not worn the same T-shirt twice in six weeks. They would all ask "Where are we going today." She loved it.

The weekend flew by. My BP was still a bit high but, I felt better. That little green pill (later to be known as "The death pill") was a life saver. We spent the time cruising up and down the main drag, playing tunes on the tape player. Kissing at every red light "Red Light Kiss" boy were there a lot of them. Life was great. How long will it last???

The next few weeks brought many surprises. Our discovery process was leading us along paths neither one us could have ever anticipated! The month of September was some what of a blur for me. Most of the time I was so drugged up from the medication, I had no clue which end was up. Every time I stood up I almost passed out. As one can imagine, when you lower your whole system from a blood pressure of 220/160 and a pulse of 120, to 120/80 and a pulse of 48. My system was screwed up. Janine, as did all of my friends, stood beside me with the greatest support one could ever hope for. To them I do owe my deepest gratitude. The five different drugs I was taking did the trick. The BP was lowered and the vision came back to somewhat normal. We did consult an eye specialist who said I was extremely lucky. She indicated that most people who have this problem, never recover their vision. I was indeed blessed by an angel. Her name was Janine. Though I am not prone to follow the rigorous paths of organized religion. I most admit she was sent to me when I needed her most.

By the outset of October 1993 my health had improved such that I could go back to work. Our life together had been tossed into the cosmic blender and seemed to come out stronger. Janine finally moved her "stuff" out her apartment and into mine. We were as one. We spent every moment together we could. Each day continued to be a joy. Every night we continued to fold into each other while music softy cradled us in it's gentle rhythm and soul. This was what dreams are made of. I had never loved nor given of my soul to someone so quickly and so deeply. I had found a joy that seemed to have eluded me for many years. The months moved with such stealth they seemed to pass without detection. The beams of love between us shined brighter everyday. Even grocery shopping was a treat. One day while in the "Gucci" Giant, I held her near the frozen food section and kissed her with such passion she claimed her knees buckled. This was the love of my life and I wanted all to see!

The autumn leaves came and went while we basked in their colors. Hot air balloons criss crossed the sky as we basked in the lowering sun night after night. The stars were our witnesses for the passion and joy new love can bring. Next thing we knew it was Thanksgiving. What a wonderful time of the year. As all who have families will attest, Thanksgiving is a time of joy and grief. Your parent's expect you to eat at their house and there are two sets of parents. What to do. We visited my parents and told them we were having guests over for dinner and slinked home just in time to have a celebration of our own. Just the two of us. Quiet and peaceful without the noise and rumble of the hordes of people with their inquiring minds.

Through out my adult life Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite times of the year. This year was going to be better than ever. We escaped the onslaught of the family. This was our celebration. The day had been very chilly and there was a forecast of snow for the evening. As the 24 pound turkey baked in the oven, we opened the blinds on all sides and watched as the snow fell softly on our first Thanksgiving day! M. Tribaut poured as quietly as the snow fall. What a wonderful day to be alive. Nine o'clock came with the revelation the turkey was done. Thanksgiving Dinner for two...with all the fixins... was ready. We had so much to be thankful for. Our love, my new found health, the soft music that was our nightly voyeuristic companion, and of course our future. Where would it lead us? How would the blend of interests and passions intertwine themselves? The ever persistent question. "How long will it last?.... "

Our Love Story continues here.

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