The Beginning Part 1 of 2

Forty-eight years. That is how long I have known my husband. We met on a 4-H retreat. I was 14 and he was 17. My brother had already met him and liked him. When we met, I liked him too. He was funny, loved music and had a personality that drew you in.

When I got older, we fell in love and dated for a while. Because we lived almost 2 hours apart, it was hard for me to maintain the relationship with calls and a few visits here and there. We were still young. So, I broke up with him because I wanted someone to date who could be near me. It took him a long time to heal and looking back, it did for me too. I was just in denial. At some point, we started to talk again. It was actually after my marriage to a physically abusive man had ended. I needed my friend. The day after he got married, my letter reached him. He was in the Navy by this time. He would later say that if the letter had reached him one day earlier, he would not have gotten married.He called when he got my letter. He seemed guarded. I knew something was wrong. It was hard for him to know that I was divorced and he had just gotten married the day before. When he told me, I cried. At any rate, we kept in touch after that but not too much. He would sometimes talk about his marital problems and I was the listening ear or sometimes I gave advice when asked. I knew he would give the marriage his all and I felt I had lost him forever because I knew how he felt about the sacred bond. He would later say he stayed longer than he should have.