Half a century ago: Beauty and the Beast

[DFW]

Well, almost half a century ago, anyway. December, 1974. We were both 22.

I made my first trip to Oldenburg, Germany to meet "her" parents. Luckily, I liked them both, and they liked me (there's no accounting for taste).

My wife and our German-based daughter were going through some old photos this afternoon--there are always more than you think--and found the first photo of my future wife and myself together ever taken. We had just met that July in what was then West Berlin.

I STILL can't believe my luck, even now, some 46 and a half years later.

[abqtommy]

1. Will this story be expanded in book or film form? asking for a friend but you can reply to me...

[DFW]

2. Well, there is kind of a precedent

We‘re just kind of a boring sequel....

[DFW]

3. For your friend, here is a VERY abridged condensation of the next chapters:

1981, the Caribbean:


1982 the wedding:


1998, in Spain:


2015 Washington, DC:


2017 in Dubrovnik:


There is no German equivalent of "Aging Schmaging," but if there were, that would be her attitude on the subject.

[abqtommy]

4. Thank you. My friend envies you your happiness!

[DFW]

5. I'm such a nerd otherwise

I had to get lucky at SOMETHING. Might as well be her, right?

[abqtommy]

6. Right as rain! Of course Karma might just have decided that you were due for a positive life

change! Sometimes it's chance/luck and sometimes it's fate... That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

[DFW]

7. It was definitely chance/luck

I went all through junior high, high school and college where all the girls I liked wanted guys who were cute or rich or cool or star athletes. I was none of the above. I chanced upon the one in ten thousand who was just looking for someone who didn't have an angle or a fancy pickup line. It was just my turn, I guess.

It hasn't been a 46 year unhindered joy ride. We've had deaths in the family, just escaped two of them being us (cancer with her, twice, heart issues with me, constantly). But on the whole, yeah, no complaints. She was suggested for a job as a model, but found it to be too boring, and so became a social worker, a stressful, thankless job at best, with me as her longest term case.