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Mike and I were first introduced when I went back to work for Pacific Telephone Company in 1977 and was placed in the Plant Service Center. I worked in repair service and he was on the local test board; so we had to talk on the phone for business from time to time. It seems we also would be on break in the lounge at the same time almost every day. When I first saw him, I was a little afraid to talk to him, because he was such a big tall man. But soon I found out that he was just a big teddy bear with a very soft and gentle voice. He was 6 ft. 5 in. tall and probably weighed about 230 pounds, and he had deep blue eyes and very light hair. In fact, I thought his hair was bleached blond, but later he told me it was naturally gray and had been gray since he was in his early 20's. We discovered that we each had a son by the name of Michael, and that they both had many "problems," and this seemed to bring us closer. Mike also had two girls, and I had another son 4 years older than my Mike. Mike was in the process of getting a divorce; and soon I was in the same situation, so our friendship grew into more, and on Sept. 1, 1979, we were married. About 20 of our closest friends from work went to Las Vegas with us for the ceremony in "The Little White Chapel" and my oldest son, Stephen, gave his mom away. Life was not too easy back then for us, since he had 3 children and a bitter x-wife to support. We both worked as much overtime as we could to make ends meet, and we had each other; so we both looked back later and agreed it had been worth the struggle. As the children reached adulthood and our obligations lessoned, we were able to start saving for the future and eventually built our dream home on the 2 1/2 acres we had bought in the Mojave Desert. It was there that we also met Barry Hartz from LPL and invested our savings and retirement money for a good life when Mike retired.
Mike kept working "below" in Alhambra, CA, and I just stayed home at first and had so much fun decorating our new home. We didn't leave the yard "natural desert" the way most of the people in the desert did. We decided to have grass and lots of plants and trees and make it an oasis of green in the middle of the desert. We landscaped over an acre; and when it was done, it was outstanding, and very beautiful. I told Mike if he would buy me a riding lawn mower I would cut the grass each week, and that was what I spent every Thursday afternoon doing for the next nine years. On the weekends he would edge it and trim the many bushes, trees, and roses, and we kept it looking very nice. We lived there for a total of 9 years, and they were my most wonderful memories.
Since our dream was to travel after retirement, we also bought a new, but small, 27ft. Bounder motor home and did manage to take a trip each year in it. One of our last long trips in the motorhome was to Yellowstone National Park, and our dream was to return there after retirement. On another trip we went to Tennessee to visit relatives, and from there my sister Brenda went with us to Florida to visit a friend who was on a temporary job assignment there. From Florida Mike and I returned home using a different route and saw many states we had not seen before; and Brenda returned home to TN with her friend.
Life was great then and it seemed I had finally learned how to enjoy myself. However I always had the feeling that something was going to happen to spoil it for us, like waiting for the other shoe to drop. Try as I did, it was so hard for me to just relax and take each day as it came. Soon I knew why this cloud always hung over me. In fact that story is my therpy and reason for starting my web page in the first place, so if you don't read anything else, read it. |
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