Connecting with Old Memories

My life has taken some unplanned twists and turns. Today is June 6th, 2011. If I were still married to my first husband, today would have been our 42nd wedding anniversary. June 6, 1969 was a terrible day. He was supposed to pick me up at my parent's house at 9:00 a.m. Instead, as I later heard from his mother, he sat in their driveway in his packed car for hours deciding whether to get married or just to take off for California where he had a summer job. Finally he picked me up at 1:00 p.m. and he drove me to the LDS Temple in Idaho Falls. When we got there, after fishing around in his pockets, he realized he had left the marriage license, his Temple recommend, and the ring at home. He sent his best man for the license. The Temple President called his Bishop and Stake President for reports of worthiness. We married without the ring, but not before his mother had the President call us into his office for a private meeting. He asked us if we loved each other. We said yes. He asked us if we were going to obey all of God's commandments. We said yes. "Then go get married!", he said. At the time I thought his mother didn't like me, but looking back, maybe she did. Preventing that marriage might have been the nicest thing she could have done for me, but, of course I never would have known. I need to write her a thank-you.

It was customary for the groom's parents to arrange a dinner after the wedding, but since our engagement was so erratic (off and on 13 times), they hadn't made any arrangements. Al and I went to Arctic Circle for a hamburger but it was closed. If I had been seeking for a sign that this marriage was not a good idea, it would have to have been a direct vision of God conking me on the head and saying, "You idiot, can't you see he doesn't love you? Give it up, already!" I was a needy, pathetic, desperate little girl. Anyway, after that inauspicious beginning, the marriage was all downhill after that.