Pg 2 - My story

Today is my fourth daughter’s birthday. She turns 28 today, Happy Birthday Jessica. I went out last night for dinner and a comedy club with two of my daughters Jessica and Regina. It turns out that it bothers
Jessica to coming that old. OLD? It is surreal to me because even though I am sitting with them, laughing with them, I feel young again and forget that I am old. Do I really have a daughter that old? Wait my oldest is 35, so yes. As Jessica talks and whines about another birthday I have to remind her that she
could be six feet under the ground, that she has her health that she can walk and write and use her brain. That she has two beautiful children and a husband that just adores her besides loves her. Ha-ha I guess that is what mothers are for. Here is a pic of us before I go back to my story of being married for 37 yrs.

Marie-Jessica-Regina

  The time frame I think is important so I met Jimmy the end of October 1973. I went home early in the morning, jumped into bed for some sleep. When I woke I received a letter in the mail. OK now I am
going to unload some dirty laundry, and let me tell you that I am ashamed of myself. The letter starts out, Dear Marie , I miss you very much. Yes, I was doing the unthinkable. I had a fiancé, stationed in Hawaii. I was engaged I think for over a year, and most of that time he was gone, stationed far away, and I was bored and getting tired of waiting for him to come home. The drinking age changed from 21 to 18 and even though I didn't drink, I was able to go into these lounges and dance. I loved music and dancing. After that boys started to notice me. Me! I couldn't believe it. I had one boy named Todd that I was good friends with and we use to go on weekend trips riding his motorcycle. Now I want to remind you I was
engaged and I let him know that, and he was a gentleman and never tried anything. We were just good friends, best boy & girl friends, and we would venture out all over Illinois, or Indiana on his bike. I did tell my fiancé about this with a script telling him not to worry and as far as I knew he trusted me. But when I met Jimmy it was different.

Later that week Jimmy called me and asked me out on a date. I couldn't believe it and without thinking
I said yes. Than as I walked into my room there was a picture of me and Tom. I didn't want to be disloyal so I wrote Tom a Dear John letter, making myself believe that I was doing the right thing and that Tom would be OK with this. The weekend came and Jimmy picked me up in his mustang and we went on our date. Jimmy brought me to this old nickelodeon restaurant. As we walked into the front doors there were mirrors on the walls, the kind you find at a circus that would either make you look short and fat or tall and skinny. We were seated at the table with bench seats and with out any notice one side of the bench would rise from the floor pushing you down the seat and than slowly lower back down. The top of the walls toward the ceiling were animals like monkeys with cymbals and when people would throw money in them they would play music. Jimmy was charming and I don't think I ever laughed so much. We sat, ate and talked and had such a good time.

Finally it was time to leave and Jimmy drove me to the forest preserves. I think he planned on making out, but we started talking and I brought up Jesus and the fact that I was a virgin and didn't believe in making love until my wedding night. I told him about Tom and he told me about his old girlfriends. But the conversation would come back to the fact I haven't had sex yet and he was just not understanding why I wanted to wait.

It is not like I haven't had the chance. I once had a boyfriend named Steve that I was head over heels in love with, or so I thought. I told him that I would not make love to him until our wedding night and he dated me in my junior year in high school. One day some things at home got hot and I ran away. He found me, and brought me to his house. He brought me into his bedroom and we sat on the bed. He tried to put the moves on me, like he usually did, and I fought him off, like I usually did, but this time it was different. He told me he had gotten a job with the railroad, and he was leaving soon and wanted me to go with him. He said he could and would take care of me the rest of my life. I explained that I needed to finish high school, and although he didn't understand why since he dropped out of school, he said fine. He would wait for me, but I would have to make love to him, so he knew that I wouldn't leave him.

Another time was when Tom sent me a ticket to see him in Hawaii. I stayed there for two weeks with him. We slept in the same room, same bed, heavy kissing and petting but that was as far as it went. He
liked the fact that I wanted to be a virgin when I got married, and one time when I got heated up, I asked him to make love to me, and marry me in Hawaii. He refused to listen to me telling me that he wanted me to have a wedding with our parents and brothers and sisters with us.

Jimmy kissed me a couple of times that night and then took me home. He said he would call but the week went by and he never called me. I went to the lounge that Friday night and he didn't show up. The next week went by and he didn't call me. Believe it or not, I couldn't understand what I did wrong, and I was wishing for him to call. After two weeks of no phone calls or seeing him at the lounge the third week, Jimmy came over with a chocolate whipped crème cake. It was his way of saying he was sorry. He told me that I scared him with the virgin talk and wasn't sure if he really wanted to go out with me anymore but changed his mind. 

Whew am I long winded. Well that is enough for today. Have a great day and think of life like a half glass of wine. It is rich, tastes good and half full. :)