A Blind Date
Dad and Mom met on a blind date. He was on leave from the Navy and stationed in San Diego near, she worked at the post office in Stayton, Oregon.
They were married in Milton Free Water, Oregon. Dad was handsome in his Navy uniform and Mom lovely in her laced wedding gown.
Mom told me their landlady listened through the apartment walls to hear if she was vacuuming. Mom felt it was because the landlady was stingy and didn't want them using too much electricity.
Eventually, Dad and Mom had five girls, me and my sisters of course but Dad had wanted boys. They even planned names for boys: Gary for Grace, I would have been Michael, Sophie would have been named Stephen...but then they gave up. Dad once wrote a letter to his mom he wanted boys, and her reply was “You have five little girls and a farm.”
I heard that if you could kiss your elbow it would change your gender. I remember one time I stood at the top of our driveway and tried really hard but it was to no avail.
One spring day the place where the garden would be planted was covered with yellow mustard weed. It was easy to pull them up and I was so excited to show him so I waited beside the field watching for him to come home. When he saw what I had done he didn’t say much but his expression showed that the problem would be solved simply by plowing the ground.
One day while my Mom and my sisters were gone, I made dinner. We got a good laugh at how my mashed potatoes stood up like little sand castles and the gravy lay like snow on the top.
By the time I was in eighth grade, Dad was so deeply depressed that he went to Goldendale to what I thought was visit his mother's grave but it was actually to commit suicide. What he did instead was come back to the Lord. It wasn't until he was 80 years old and had suffered far too long with clinical depression that he finally got diagnosed and received help with medication.
He and Mom had what I suppose were typical marriage problems. They had been seeing a counselor at the courthouse which was a curious place, I thought. The counselor once asked for the whole family to come and he asked us each questions. In the end, is final diagnosis was that we girls were okay, but Dad and Mom had issues to work out. I can still picture the very long table where we sat. I felt very nervous and very small.
When Dad came back from that trip to Goldendale our family life was radically changed. It was complicated. He wanted us to have family devotions, but to we weren’t used him being our spiritual leader. I appreciate him for setting our family on the path to becoming whole. I cherish the memories that I have of us sitting around the dining room table and the sight of him holding his Bible. He became a man of prayer, humility and sacrificial giving.
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