25 Years and Counting!

Tomorrow, April 8th, is our 25th Anniversary. Yep, Sunday's Coming! In more ways than one. What a great day! Jesus rose and we're still hanging in there. No, more than that, we are happy and fully in love and hanging in there and Jesus not only rose but He is ALIVE!

Let me tell you a story.

When I was 23 years old I met a guy named Geoff on his 25th birthday. This happened at a dark, dank, odorous establishment in Phoenix, Arizona. But the music was great and that was all that mattered. I was with a group of girlfriends and Geoff was with some buddies. Geoff danced with all the girls except one - me. I didn't even notice until much later. (As a side note, let me just mention that Jesus didn't factor into this story at all at this time. He came along much later though we both believe He was there all along. We just didn't take the time to look for Him.)

We continued to see each other nearly every weekend as we frequented the same establishments. This was because we both had friends in the same band - Blue Shoes. Well, Geoff had a friend in it. I had a friend who had a friend in the band. Anyway, that's what kept throwing us together. Geoff had a bit of a crush on my roommate, Barbara. They would spend hours talking and I would wonder what in the world she saw in this guy. After all, I was doing the wild thing and this guy was showing up at these great new wave places in khakis, a button down shirt and a baseball jacket while I was sporting red and black zebra way before it was cool.

Then one night we found ourselves there with noone else around. Barbara was on a business trip for two weeks. So we started talking. Hmm, this guy was pretty interesting. He asked me if I was going to be there on Friday night and I said I probably would and we decided to call it a date. That went on for quite some time. We became an item. We were always together. And then his company decided to transer him to Houston, Texas. Holy cow. That was making a mess of things. I don't know if I thought everything would remain the same forever or what but I never expected this. I mean, we were having a lot of fun here and I liked things just the way they were. I'm sure Geoff did, too. That may be why he asked me to go with him. This was not a proposal. It was something other than that. I said no. Not unless we got married. So, in the frozen food aisle of the grocery store he said "then let's get married." I think that was the proposal. He was in town for the weekend. He had already gone to work in Houston. I was missing him. I told him I'd let him know. I sent him a plant later that week with one word on the card. "yes". We still have the plant. Isn't that cool?

So the plans began to be made. I won't get into it too much. Suffice it to say we both had some pretty screwed up family stuff going on and I was not having a great time planning a wedding with Geoff in Texas. I was not a person who accepted change very well and I was having to leave my friends, my job, my home, my fun. It was weighing on me pretty heavily - all of it. I freaked out. I was moving out of my house and I had a roomful of wedding gifts piled up. And I couldn't do it. I had already transferred to a new job I was to start in two weeks. We had an apartment picked out. But I was frozen. I tell ya I sat in one place for 3 days in the same sweats not eating not sleeping. My roommate was totally worried about me. I just couldn't move. Finally I decided I had to call it off. Yep, you read it right. I just couldn't do it. I called Geoff and told him and now it was his turn to freak out. To this day I am so sorry I caused him that grief. But to this day I also wouldn't have done it any differently. We had lost our connection. All we talked about was financial stuff and his mother and my parents. It was ugly. It was not how I wanted to spend the rest of my life. So I bailed. I sent all the gifts back. I cancelled the preacher, the location, the caterer. Everything. His mother hated me. I was so relieved. That was in December.

Sometime early the next year I started missing him. So, I called him. We talked for hours. Hours on hours. He began to write me the most amazing love letters. We rekindled the love that was lost. It was amazing. I was so relieved. We were married on April 8, 1982 in San Antonio, Texas at the courthouse. We were going to be married the day before in Austin but Geoff chickened out. So we drove on to San Antonio the next day and did it. It was so hot. We drank margaritas on the Riverwalk. I think we were both in shock. We got ourselves a great hotel room in a very old hotel and we called his mom. She handed the phone to his dad. He was thrilled for us. His mom has since forgiven me and we're fine now but it took some years. My parents were thrilled. They've always loved Geoff.

Fast forward 25 years. I am so blessed to have this man in my life. I cannot imagine what my life would have been like without him by my side. He has been my lover, my best friend, my confidante, my biggest cheerleader, my push from behind, my arms to cling to, my catalyst into freedom. He has always believed in me - way before I ever believed in myself. He has loved me before I could love myself. I am forever grateful that he forgave me. I am forever grateful that he loves me. The best gift he ever gave me was a couple of weeks ago when we were talking to a friend whose boyfriend had broken up with her and Geoff said, "I broke up with Candy once." Which was true. But then I said, "yeah, but I called off the wedding". He looked at me and said, "I forgot all about that." God is good. He is very very good. And I am more in love today than I was 25 years ago. The End.