Helping you create a home by hand.

30 Years Ago

I met this man.

25 year old Dave

We must have spent five or six hours talking to each other that Saturday night and on into the wee hours of Sunday morning.   While talking we discovered that we shared the same birthday.  Dave is exactly five years older than I am.

He asked me to have supper with him on our birthdays in a week and a half’s time.   Now Dave had been drinking just a teeny bit and so I told him that if he remembered; to call me at work Monday morning and ask me again.

I told him where I worked on base.   I didn’t even tell him what extension I was at; just where I worked.   Truth to tell… I didn’t expect to hear from him because as I mentioned he’d had a few.

But first thing Monday morning, I’d barely gotten sat down at my desk when the phone rang.   It was Dave calling to remind me that we had a date for our birthdays.   I was flattered that he remembered.  And I was certainly attracted to him.   If he’d asked me out for any other day, I would have said yes, right away.

But I wasn’t sure that I wanted to spend my birthday with him.  After all… birthdays are special and what if that initial spark wasn’t there when we met again to have supper on our birthdays?   A person only turns 19 once!

So to hedge my bets, I suggested that he come along with me on a little Christmas shopping trip I had planned for Thursday evening to Camrose.   It’s about a 2 hr drive from Wainwright to Camrose and I figured in the time it took to drive there, go shopping and drive back, I’d have a much better idea who this Cpl Flemming was.

Thursday after work, I picked him up at the single men’s quarters and off we went to Camrose for late night shopping.  (Even today, in small town Alberta, Thursday evening the shops stay open until 9 pm.)

Just as there had been on the previous Saturday night, there was an ease between us that I’ve never felt with anyone else before or since.  We talked the whole way to Camrose and back.  We talked about our families, our work, our dreams for the future.  We talked politics and religion.

Dave was (and continues to be) the most fascinating person I know.    When we got back to Wainwright later that evening, I asked him where we were going for supper on our birthdays.

The years have sped by so fast and have taken us through marriage, parenthood and raising three amazing children, his army career which included two NATO peacemaking tours and his second career after retiring from the army.

We’ve lived in three different countries; Canada, Germany and the US.   We’ve travelled through almost every province and state in Canada and the US and lived in a few of them.  Even looking back over all that’s happened and all the adventures we’ve had… it doesn’t seem possible that it’s been 30 years.

What an amazing journey we are having together!  I’d do it all over again but more important I’m looking forward to all the adventures we have ahead of us.

I would be so pleased if you chose to share by clicking on one of the buttons below!

10 Comments

  • Quilter Kathy
    December 16, 2011 4:44 pm

    Loved reading about your life adventure…what a wonderful legacy you have created together. ENjoy!

  • Wendy B
    December 1, 2011 4:56 pm

    congratulations on a wonderful life together and many many more years to come! Doesn’t time speed by though…in just a blink, we’re getting ‘old’ but the mind is still in that ’19 year old’ frame of mind with wishes and dreams to fulfil!
    happy happy anniversary!
    sugary hugs
    Wendy :O)

  • Teresa
    December 1, 2011 1:02 am

    Happy Anniversary. I love that you can write your story after 30 years and it is as fresh as it would be if it happened yesterday. No wonder you two have 30 years. May you have 30+ more!

  • corina
    December 1, 2011 12:32 am

    Oh. Most important of all – HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

  • corina
    December 1, 2011 12:31 am

    Great story! Your post brought back some great memories for me. My husband worked in Alberta for a couple of years. We rented an old farmhouse on the outskirts of Hardisty. I used to go to Wainwright once a week for groceries. I bought my trusty Pfaff sewing machine in Camrose and joined the quilting guild in Czar!

  • Terry
    November 30, 2011 11:27 pm

    Happy Anniversary, Before starting relationship I sure you never think about this wonderful life. Happy to read your extra ordinary story. When I started I think it will be become best friend of you, but really happy when this ended with beautiful ending.

  • Jen
    November 30, 2011 6:31 pm

    Happy Anniversary! Sweet story, thanks for the smile 🙂

  • Robin (RsIslandCrafts)
    November 30, 2011 5:21 pm

    Happy anniversary!! Such a wonderful story.

  • Nancy D
    November 30, 2011 4:24 pm

    Lovely story! What a cutie!
    We met in September, 1979 at college. We bonded over the intricacies of English grammar. We have stayed together because no matter what, we always make each other smile. Such a gift, isn’t it?

  • Sandra :)
    November 30, 2011 10:47 am

    What a wonderful story — I can’t wait to meet him and see you, woooooooooooohoooooooooooooooo!

    My “meeting future hubby’ story isn’t quite as nicely packaged – it was a blind date, and we got along fine that night, but when I went to work the next day I told the girls @ work that I didn’t like him much – he shook my hand after our date!! Don’t ask what was going on in my 21 year old (and apparently quite shallow!) mind 😀 That was June 22, 1983 – and in August 2011 we celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary – I guess I liked him a little bit, LOL!

Comments are closed.