Key West

And this is where a story begins. Lynda and I were on the gulf coast, boogie boarding and I am out trying to catch a wave and I see Lynda on the beach and she is holding her face as if something is wrong.

I paddled in like crazy, got to the beach and she looks up and says "I caught a wave wrong and it pile drove me into the sand". Her face was scraped up super bad and she was worried she broke her shoulder. Turns out, her shoulder was fine, but her face? The biggest shiner I have ever seen. her right eye was just one big swollen bruise. I freaked.

We were going to our home town of Roswell, and I was going to ask her parents to bless our marriage and ask for their approval. She called them up and let them know what had happened... now, we are traveling through the deep south. everytime we pulled in to a restaraunt to get something to eat? they would look at her, then look at me and say words like "Little lady do you need some help"? Then look at me like I was about to get stomped... and I am standing there wanting to say something, but what could I say? She looked really rough.

We finally got to Roswell, and we meet her mom at the door. Her mom looks at her, then looks at me... oh boy... well, I went ahead and asked for their blessing, and her mom makes the comment "Just be nice to my daughter" went right over my head. The following year, her divorce was finalized, and we eloped to Kauai. Finally her mom admits that she thought I was beating on her, as almost everytime she called, she would laugh and say "Momma, got a bruise".

I looked at Mrs Smith, and said "are you crazy"? I know for a fact if I ever hit her I would wake up wrapped in a sheet and she would be standing there with an iron skillet, saying "My turn"... Lynda told her, "no mom, for the first time in years I am playing hard enough to get hurt". and her mom laughed. In all my years, I have NEVER raised my hand to a woman. Ever. In fact over the 20 years of our relationship, we never fought. not once.

Later, I received a wooden plaque from her parents "You have our blessing" and on the back it said "we love you". I keep that plaque on my wall in my living room. It has more meaning to me than just about anything else.Läs mer