When and How I Met My Dear Husband

     I was at the enlisted club at Naval Station Jacksonville for country western night.  I was with my mother and my girlfriends.  Yes, I was at a bar with my mother, she was my best friend, and we went everywhere.  It may have not been appropriate, but those are some of the greatest memories I have of my dearly departed mother.  I was 18 years old, just a week from my 19^th birthday, and I was full of life and energy.  I was at a point in my life where I had no interest in dating, I wanted to finish up my senior year at Middleburg High School, but I had no idea what I was doing after that.  Mom and I spent 6 nights a week in Country and Western bars.  I was a dancer on the high school’s dance and flag team, and I loved to dance every second that I had the chance too.

     It was April 19, 1994, as mentioned, I was a senior in high school, and this particular night we were at the E-Club.  I was with Mom, Misty, Anna, and a few other girlfriends I cannot recall at this time, when a gorgeous man walked in.  My mother was sitting with my friend Misty while I was on the dance floor.  Mom was the first one to notice this man, 6’3 tall, fit, and wearing boots and a cowboy hat.  Misty also noticed this handsome man, and said he was very hot.  Mom proceeded to ask Misty if she was interested because if not, then my mother was going to quickly get me a dance with this man.  Wow, was mom the wing-woman.  Misty said no, then mom proceeded to try to get his attention from across the room.

     Mom was a little bit on the heavy side, well, maybe more than a little.  But to me, she was still beautiful.  At her first beckons for this gorgeous man to come over to her table, where she was sitting alone while I was dancing, she was ignored.  Later we would find out he was purposely ignoring her because he thought this much older woman was flirting with him, and he had just turned twenty a couple weeks prior.  Older women were not his cup of tea.  Mom then got up, after fruitless attempts to get his attention at the table he was at with several other young enlisted Navy men, and walked to his table where she flat out asked him, “Will you dance with my daughter?” 

     She then had his attention, he asked her who I was and what I looked like and she pointed to me on the dance floor.  He then said he was interested.  When I got off the dance floor from line dancing, mom told me about this handsome cowboy and pointed him out to me.  I told my mother that he was way too good-looking for me, and that he probably wouldn’t be interested in me.  The DJ at the club put on a group couples dance that was danced to by the song “Wild, Wild, West” and I ran to the dance floor, noticing that he too was on the dance floor.  As we all partnered up for this dance, in which we all got to dance with each person on the dance floor, I was very nervous.
   
  The dance started and everyone went through the routine and it was getting close to me dancing with this tall cowboy.  I was so nervous.  Once I was in front of him, and he had his hand on my waist and my hand in his other hand, I immediately felt the chemistry.  We went through our turn dancing with each other with a brief introduction, all the while I am craning my neck to look up into his gorgeous and hypnotizing blue eyes.  I was flushed.  We finished the dance and went back to our separate tables.
  
   I wanted to dance with this man again.  He asked me to slow dance with him, and I said yes.  He took my hand and led me out to the dance floor.  The lights were dimmed low for the lovers on the dance floor, and when we started dancing, I melted into his arms.  He made me feel like I’ve never felt before.  I felt safe, I felt passion, I didn’t want to leave his arms.  When our dance ended, he left his friends table and came to mine and we have been together since.
   
  It was nearing 2am, and we always closed out the bar, even on school nights, and mom and I asked him to go have breakfast with us at Famous Amos in Orange Park.  He rode with his friends and they followed us to the restaurant.  When we got there and were seated, he ordered a ground beef omelet while I had the grits with grilled tomatoes on top.  We all shared an appetizer of fried mushrooms as well.  He didn’t talk much to my mom or my friends, he was very quiet.  I watched him observe everyone at the table, he was enjoying the company.
    
 When it was time to leave, he walked me over to moms car and asked if he could kiss me.  I immediately freaked out.  Not because I didn’t want to kiss this tall, sexy, blue-eyed cowboy, but because I had just eaten fried mushrooms!  Still, many years later, he remembers me turning him down for our first kiss.  We exchanged our numbers and planned to meet up the next night at another club.  When he walked back to the car he arrived in with his friends, they were laughing at him.  There was no way his friends were going to not mention that I wouldn’t kiss him.

     We dated for 5 months, now you may think that is not long, but we have been together ever since we met.  We met April 19, 1994 and got married September 26, 1994, one month after I graduated high school.  Why the rush?  It was because we were in love, we are soul mates, and the Navy had separated us and moved him to Virginia while I was stuck in Florida.  After a month of being away from each other, he called me and told me that I was moving to Virginia with him.  I told him there was no way I was going to live with him without being married, because I wasn’t raised that way, and he proceeded to tell me he had made arrangements at the courthouse and made an appointment with the Justice of the Peace for us to get married that Monday.  So, we married on September 26, 1994.

     Many don’t stay married having married so young and being in the military.  But we were in it for keeps.  On December 11, 1995 we were blessed with our first son, Christian Ray, and then on October 22, 2000 be were blessed again with our second son, Elijah Stephen.  We had a couple of rough spots in our twenties, but we love each other and made it through them.  When the going got tough, we got closer.  And come this September, we will have been married for 18 years.