Sentinel, 57 210111

      Past, present and future.

57 years ago today, my life changed in a very special way.

Months before I was a guy chasing skirt. With one after another, I would flirt. I had no shame. I took no blame. Then I met a beautiful girl, who turned my world upside down. I was as bold that night as I had ever been to that point, nor have I ever been since. This beautiful girl was different from the rest. She turned my world upside down. From that moment we met I knew she was the one for me. She was anything but sure about me. A few nights later I had a dream about her. We were standing at the altar in a church. Me in navy dress blues and she in a white dress getting married. This was before I had ever thought about enlisting in the navy and I didn’t ever recall seeing a man in navy dress blues.

I had no idea about where the future would take me. When we first met, my only thoughts were about being with her wherever that might be. I was working in a gas station/brake shop pumping gas at 26 cents a gallon, repairing car and truck tires, pulling wheels off cars for impending brake jobs for $40 a week. My goal at the time was to get to where I could make $100 a week so I could have a house, nice car and a wife.

Little did I know what would happen after meeting that special girl.

We were wed 57 years ago today. I was in the navy making $70 a month and though times were tough, we made it. We lived in a little efficiency apartment outside the naval air technical training center, no TV, barely a radio, but the other people around us were in the same boat, so we had as good a life as those we knew.

Life was not pretty in those early years, but we made it through somehow and things got better. There was a lot of separation with me being deployed for what seemed an endless time, but once my navy time was over, we were at least together. There were lean years and fat years that we experienced and now, well it’s great to be joined at the hip for so long. We have survived Joyce’s near death months, my illnesses, the current pandemic, old age. My plan is we will continue on our current path through life for as long as it lasts.