He Was My Saviour!

The first time I saw him was when he was dancing at a local night club. He looked so good on the dance floor and I really wanted to dance with him. I waited until my date went to the rest room and I hurried over to where he sat and said, "Can I dance with you?" He looked up at me from where he was sitting and said, "I don't know if you can follow me or not." Oh, my gosh, what egotism! This guy likes himself! I smiled and said, "Try me." Well, we danced to a fast piece and did what was called "the jitter bug." He was from New York and so he called it "the swing." Whatever you call it we did it, and it was like we had danced together forever. That is what we did! Dance together forever. At least for the next forty two years. He was thirty one years old and had never been married. He said he just had not met the right girl. I was thirty five, had been married before and had two boys. He decided he had met the right girl and having a ready made family was not a deterrent. We married January 19, 1958 and for the next forty two years he told me every day of my life that he loved me. Some days he would say, "Did I tell you I loved you today?" If I said, "No," then he would repeat it, and if I said, "Yes," he would say, "Well I will tell you again." My guy was of Spanish-Irish decent, and his dad was born in Barcelona, Spain. My family did not believe that and said he was Mexican, or as they say now days, Hispanic. My father had taught us that any time someone says they are Spanish, that means they are Mexican. Well, sorry daddy dear, but I saw my husband's dad's citizenship papers and he was from Barcelona, Spain. Why did it make a difference? Who knows except it sounds like he was a bigot, does it not? Well , one sister said my marriage would not last six months and another called him a "spic." That is an ugly name for a Mexican, which he was not, but it made her feel better about herself. Not far into the marriage he wanted to adopt the boys. I told him that was a big responsibility, and it carried a lot of scary stuff with it. If we ever did divorce he would be liable for child support and other things along with it. It did not matter, he wanted to adopt the boys. I proposed he just adopt the youngest as the oldest was in school already and would have to change his name and explain it away at school. The oldest boy would hear of none of it and wanted to be one of us also. It was decided to be a done deal and he went through with all the legal stuff and did it. We were now a family. This man took such good care of me. I had a foot massage after every shower. He had a little stool he would drag out, sit on it in front of me, put my feet on his lap and perform the best foot massage in the world. He would not let me wipe down my own shower. He preferred to do it for me. After he retired, I had my coffee and paper waiting for me every morning when I woke up. Best forty two years of my life. I will try to shorten this up by just telling you some instances of how he gave me back my life. One day my dad was demanding me to do something as we were leaving his house from a visit, and my sweetie turned to him and said." She is not your little girl anymore, she is my wife. She no longer has to answer to you." My dad was dumbfounded and just stood there and said nothing, but that is the day he started to have respect for my husband. Another time he suggested we go to the movie and I said all right but first I had to call....., and let her know where I was. He took the phone out of my hand, hung it up, and said to me,"You are married to me now and you do not have to answer to anyone!" Always before I had to call this one sister to let her know where I was going , or to let her know who was coming to visit me and if a car was parked in front of my house she would call to see who it was because her husband drove past my house daily on his way home from work and reported any strange car in front. My husband put a stop to that for good. It really upset her that she did not know my whereabouts at all time. I will tell you why in my next blog. He just stopped all those responsibilities my family had put on me. Maybe now you will realize why I had my screaming and running spells. He is the one who put me into the car and took me to see a doctor at the mental health clinic which started me into group therapy and gave me back my life. I credit him for it all, my sanity, and my life back, and do I miss him? With all my heart!