I hear that there is snow almost nationwide today – so I thought I would warm you up with our own Valentines Day story. Unique in that Roger and I are fairly pragmatic people – well not completely (as you’re about to hear).
I just posted this photo to Facebook – everyone is posting mushy pictures with their significant others today – and so I dug this little gem out. But there’s a story.
Roger is actually my second husband. My first husband, Scott, died of a rare form of lukemia when he was 29 and I was 28. We didn’t have children and had been married for 5 years. Obviously it was shocking and tragic.
However, now I need to go back in time – to when I was 14 years old. Roger and I exchanged addresses through French class. He, in Sydney Australia and me here in Denver, Colorado. We wrote for years and years. He sent me things from Australia….a wallaby skin that smelled so bad it had to be kept in the garage for a month…a half of a dollar bill (which he romantically declared he would bring me the other half someday) and a lock of his hair. What can I say, we were teenagers.
He called me in college – and I believe his Dad almost killed him for that phone bill. But that Australian accent was worth it and how fun to get an international call!
Then I got married Scott – we met in College. Roger and I exchanged Christmas cards and that was about it. We didn’t lose touch, but we really didn’t keep in touch either.
After Scott died, I went on – like you have to.
About 2 years later, I had a horrid job in the mountains where I had to drive about 45 minutes through a treacherous canyon (Big Thompson Canyon for anyone who knows Colorado) from Loveland to Estes Park every day. However, I usually left home at 11am in the morning and got home at about 11pm at night. Sometimes with white knuckles from driving through snowstorms down the canyon.
So, it became my ritual to sit down at my new Mac computer with a glass of wine and email and surf the internet (wow, that hasn’t changed much! ha ha).
This is where Rog and I rekindled our relationship. I had mailed a letter to his parent’s address – which was then forwarded to him. This letter explained Scott’s death and basically caught us up. So, we started writing again. However, in the information age, it was easier to email, so we switched to that. Then, during this period where I got home so late (he was just getting up in the morning) we got hooked up on Instant messenger.
Some time passed and he then got a great new job and saved up enough money to come visit me for two weeks and then on to visit a good friend of his in Canada.
At first we were both really really tentative. After all, what do you say to someone you’ve known for 15 years, but never met? However, over the course of the week, we went to dinner, went camping and amazingly fell in love.
After 10 days of meeting in person we were married.
Nope, I’m not joking. The picture above was taken in the back of a restaurant where we were married with my sister in law and my best friend (and her husband) attending.
We broke up his apartment long distance and his parents brought his possessions over when they came to visit (and to our big wedding reception which we had 6 months later).
So, after 11 years and two amazing kids. He’s still here. He did eventually take that trip to Canada, about 5 years later – it was nice to have closure and finally complete the trip. Oh, and we did go to Australia when Missy C was 6 months old, so he’s been home once in all this time.
Happy Valentines Day Roger and I hope you all enjoy our little story!
