I was just 21 years old when I got married for the first time. Jane, the English girl I met in Italy was just barely 21, in fact she came here on her birthday. Those were crazy days, 1966, a long time ago. We were married young but didn't "settle down" until much later. There was a lot to do and we didn't even know each other. There was a mystery there of some kind and certainly an attraction and she believed everything I said!
We travelled together after only a two hour conversation in a bar next to the train station in Genoa, Italy. We hitch-hiked through Spain and were together only three weeks. That summer we wrote, the old fashion letter writing with mail that took three weeks to get from one of us to the other. Then, just like that she came over here on September the first (her 21st birthday) and we were married a week later! Not much paper work in those days.
We were kids still and being married didn't translate into a nice house with a picket fence and a dog.
We didn't even have a car, two bicycles, three speeders at that, and we lived near campus. I was still a student at the University. Being married did keep me in school, gave me a sense of responsibility and a direction in my life. But while others bought cars, stereo systems, and this and that with their earnings, Jane and I saved to travel.
Fifteen years went by before we decided to have a family, settle down and become parents. That would make a change but we knew without much discussion that changes were coming. I had what I thought was a good job as a school teacher and we had turned a 900 square foot house into a 2000 square foot house with bedrooms to fill. We were ready and we even had a car! A brand new car for $2,395.
Jane (my first wife, my only wife) made an appointment with a doctor, just to see if there were anything we should be aware of, anything to know about all of this. We were driving in our new Datsun "Honey Bee"
along a stretch of road between two towns, going the speed limit of 35 MPH, maybe the radio was on and maybe it wasn't. We were talking when we were hit.
Some idiot had robbed a store, stole $300. from the clerk and then stole a huge, heavy American car. He was being chased by four police cars all going 80 MPH and he just smashed right into the back of my little Japanese car.
That is quite an experience. We went flying, literally, the car leaving the pavement and turning every which way, smashing us head on into a guard rail, the river forty feet below. Jane got a concussion and a broken leg and I had three discs in my back crushed. We spent a week in the hospital.
Two months later she was pregnant! We were going to have a family! A daughter? a son? We didn't want to know. We wanted a healthy, happy, normal baby! More to this story if you are interested......
What I do is HERE.
We travelled together after only a two hour conversation in a bar next to the train station in Genoa, Italy. We hitch-hiked through Spain and were together only three weeks. That summer we wrote, the old fashion letter writing with mail that took three weeks to get from one of us to the other. Then, just like that she came over here on September the first (her 21st birthday) and we were married a week later! Not much paper work in those days.
We were kids still and being married didn't translate into a nice house with a picket fence and a dog.
We didn't even have a car, two bicycles, three speeders at that, and we lived near campus. I was still a student at the University. Being married did keep me in school, gave me a sense of responsibility and a direction in my life. But while others bought cars, stereo systems, and this and that with their earnings, Jane and I saved to travel.
Fifteen years went by before we decided to have a family, settle down and become parents. That would make a change but we knew without much discussion that changes were coming. I had what I thought was a good job as a school teacher and we had turned a 900 square foot house into a 2000 square foot house with bedrooms to fill. We were ready and we even had a car! A brand new car for $2,395.
Jane (my first wife, my only wife) made an appointment with a doctor, just to see if there were anything we should be aware of, anything to know about all of this. We were driving in our new Datsun "Honey Bee"
along a stretch of road between two towns, going the speed limit of 35 MPH, maybe the radio was on and maybe it wasn't. We were talking when we were hit.
Some idiot had robbed a store, stole $300. from the clerk and then stole a huge, heavy American car. He was being chased by four police cars all going 80 MPH and he just smashed right into the back of my little Japanese car.
That is quite an experience. We went flying, literally, the car leaving the pavement and turning every which way, smashing us head on into a guard rail, the river forty feet below. Jane got a concussion and a broken leg and I had three discs in my back crushed. We spent a week in the hospital.
Two months later she was pregnant! We were going to have a family! A daughter? a son? We didn't want to know. We wanted a healthy, happy, normal baby! More to this story if you are interested......
What I do is HERE.
6 comments:
Such a terrible thing to happen to you and your wife, I can't believe it. It sounds just like it happens in the movies. More tell us more
You are really a great man with lots of secrets.
Of course, I want to hear more. Such a romantic beginning.
Doing romantic and reckless things is wonderful, isn't it Jerry?
Ok, you've chummed the water and we're all here waiting for the rest of the story - spill it. PS. I love Italy it's wonderful - where we went after my year of Chemo.
"IF" we're interested?? IF??? Of course we're interested, Jer! Keep it coming!! And by the way; your Jane sounds absolutely lovely!
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