Today I had lunch with a wonderful woman who is brimming with life and energy. As she sipped a cool glass of pinot grigio, she told me the story of how she met her husband, who passed away several years ago. I thought you might enjoy the story, too. (I’ve changed their names for privacy’s sake.)
June was attending an all-girls junior college in New England, where she’d spent two of the best years of her life. She’d made what would become lifelong friends, and met many nice boys, mostly on blind dates arranged by her friends. As graduation neared, she was preparing to head back to the small Pennsylvania steel town where she’d grown up.
Several months before, her mother had called to say that June’s aunt wanted June to meet a young man named Joe who was coming back from the war. June’s mother told her to expect his call.
“It was 1946,” June said, “So the war was ending and the soldiers were coming home. My mother called me several more times to see if Joe had called, but I hadn’t heard a word. To be quite honest I’d been on so many blind dates that I wasn’t even sure I wanted to go on any more.”
“As it turned out, he took his good old time,” June said, laughing. “Apparently he was seeing another girl and calling me wasn’t on the top of his mind. I only had a few more weeks of college left when he finally called.”
June agreed to go on a date with Joe. He arranged to take the train from Boston to her small school and then take her to dinner and a concert.
“I was so naïve,” June said. “I didn’t even know what the Boston Pops were. I kept wondering why on earth he would want to take me to the symphony on our first date. But I agreed to meet him anyway.”
June prepared for her date and went down the stairs to the common area in the college’s main hall. Her roommate and several other young women accompanied her, curious about what her date would look like.
The girls hid behind the tall velvet curtains that surrounded the oval room and carefully peeked out.
“He wore his uniform,” June said. “He was so tall and handsome standing there. He was smoking a cigarette and I could see his reflection in the tall mirrors on the wall. I was so glad I’d decided to go on one more blind date. The other girls all wanted to know where I met him. We were all atwitter back behind that curtain.”
June and Joe took the train to Boston and had a wonderful dinner that lasted for hours. They never made it to the concert, but instead spent the evening getting to know one another and sharing stories about the small towns they came from in Pennsylvania.
“I almost missed curfew,” June laughed. “The headmistress at my school had arranged for me to stay in a hotel room in Boston so I wouldn’t have to travel back late on the train. I had to call her from the hotel to check in before midnight. I barely made it!”
By the time Joe dropped June off at the hotel, they were well on their way to a marriage that would last more than fifty years.
[Que the "awe" :) ]
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