LOVE & ROMANCE
After a year, we took a month for a home leave, but we had “around
the world” airplane tickets. We travelled to Bali, Indonesia, where
Gary stuck his hand in water trickling down a mountain as part of the
country’s irrigation system, because he wanted to see how cold it was.
By the time we were on an airplane, halfway to Frankfurt, Germany, he
was deathly ill, evidently from the bacteria the water carried.
He was the one who spoke German, but I ended up getting a rental
car, and began looking for the castle where we were booked to stay.
I stopped at a car dealership and asked for directions. Nobody spoke
English. I got back on the road, made a wrong turn, and stopped to ask
a man walking along the road, “Do you speak English?” “Well yes ma’am,
I’m from Nashville, Tennessee.” He gave me directions, and I found the
castle. Gary recovered, and we were on to London, then Paris, where I
was in charge of language, and back to the United States to visit.
Due to work visa rules at the time, Gary could only be out of Australia
for one month, so he went back without me, and a couple of weeks later,
I followed, stopping in Hawaii, then Fiji on the way.
Our oldest daughter, Casey, was born in Australia. After two years, we
came back to the U.S., stopping in New French Caledonia, then Tahiti
and on to live in Yuma, Arizona, with my favorite weather of anywhere.
A year later, we moved to Jacksonville, Florida. Each place we lived,
we had our circle of friends, but we were the core. Then came the time
to move back to St. Louis to company headquarters. We bought a home
in Alton, Illinois, had our second daughter, Olivia, and settled into the
business of raising children. Both sets of grandparents lived nearby, and
we brought up the girls in an idyllic situation.
At Stonehenge in
Wiltshire, England
When Casey graduated high school, she went to Gary’s alma mater,
Western Illinois University, and when Olivia was a high school junior,
Gary had an opportunity with Boeing to work in England for two years.
Olivia went to a small Catholic high school and didn’t want to switch
schools - especially in another country. We made the decision to let her
finish high school in the U.S. Gary moved to Bristol, England, and we all
travelled back and forth.
He later moved to Portsmouth, along the English Channel, and after
Casey graduated college, she joined him for several months, while we
continued to go back and forth. We all grew to love England. That
ended in 2009, and since then, Olivia has married, Casey purchased her
own home, and we are empty nesters. It all seems to happen so fast.
At first, that was sad and scary. But we figured it out. We go out to
dinner more. I cook less. We have embraced the new stage of our lives
with a mutual viewpoint. Most of the time, we are interested in doing
the same things. We start out the year on a quest to see every movie
nominated in the top Academy Awards categories. We like the same
music, the same TV series, and I can’t tell you how many times I am
thinking something, and Gary says it out loud before I have a chance.
Does he really read my mind?
While some of this may not seem remarkable, common interests that
enable you to spend mutually enjoyable time together is important, as is
building a history. After 33 years, Gary knows as much about my family
as I do. He knew relatives who are no longer here. We are the only two
who have the common thread of our children and their childhood – and
all that those memories entail. And we are all still very close.
As I once heard in a movie, “Some people go their whole life never
getting got.” So if somebody “gets you,” realize the value of that
relationship. It’s not that easy to find.
At the wedding
reception of a
family friend
SAVVY I SOPHISTICATED I SASSY
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