Its sometimes amazing how one event can change your life. For me, that event was the day I first met my wife, Marilyn.
At the time, Marilyn was dating a friend of mine. When he introduced her to me, it was as if I had just experienced the first sunrise of my life. Something inside me came alive and whispered, “that is the woman with whom you will spend the rest of your life.” However, even at 19 years old, I was already a very honorable, loyal, noble individual. My personal code of honor precluded me from ‘making a move’ on a woman a friend was dating. So, I waited. That voice inside me said her relationship with my friend would not last. Just over two months later, they broke up.
I waited some more. I wanted to give my friend some time to get over Marilyn and move on before I asked her out. I also didn’t want to just be the ‘rebound boyfriend.’ Finally, my friend had moved on and was dating someone else. Still considerate of his feelings, I asked him if he would mind if I asked Marilyn out. He said it wouldn’t, so I called her up. Twenty-eight years ago today, Marilyn and I went on our first date.
On Monday, 29 June 1981, I took Marilyn to dinner at the restaurant owned by my late cousin, Don Willis, and then took her to see Blade Runner. What’s really strange about this is that, based on our schedules and things that happened in our lives around this day, Marilyn and I are both 100% positive that this was in 1981. According to the Internet Movie Database, Blade Runner was released on 25 June 1982. I guess our date that night included passage back and forth through some sort of temporal anomaly.
A great man once wrote that men are more sentimental than women. I guess that’s true because, seven and a half years later when I finally convinced her to marry me and we were planning our wedding, I insisted that we get married on the anniversary of that first date. However, since June 29th fell on a Thursday in 1989 and the following weekend was basically the Independence Day weekend, we decided to move the date up to Saturday, 24 June 1989. It may not have been the exact day, but we honored the spirit of that first date.
Today marks the twenty-eighth anniversary of that first date. Don’t get me wrong…we aren’t living in a Disney movie, so our life together has been a roller coaster ride. But our love and commitment to each other, as well as the time we took to get to know each other before we wed, have all worked together to make certain that our union is a little bit stronger every day.
Happy 28th (First Date) Anniversary, my darling Princess! I love you more today than I did then, but no where near as much as I will tomorrow.
With all my love…
© 2009 James P. Rice
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