On Saturday, December 14, 1991, at 6:30 pm. we were married at the church we were attending at the time.
We first met at the law office that I was working at back then. His business partner and friend at that time had came into the office to seek legal advice for his girlfriend's child custody case. His friend was a loud mouth and I could not stand him whatsoever. My future husband was very quite and shy. I never will understand how they ever went into business together or how they even were friends. That man made me uneasy every time I was around him. They would come into the office and the friend would ask me to go roller skating with them and try to set me up on a date with my future husband. I had no desire whatsoever to ever spend time with them. I couldn't stand him so why would I want to date his friend? Looking back I can see how the devil was fighting us from right at the time that we even met!
I don't know when they started going to the same church that I was going to, but they were there one day. It was a very large church and if they were sitting on the other side I would have never even noticed them. Anyway, I'm thinking the ushers got involved. One Sunday morning they sat him beside me before church started. That happened to be a day that the class that I was in was having a party at another guys house after church. The lady who was my teacher came up to me and asked me who my friend was and told me I should bring him to the party. Being the polite and obedient girl that I am I asked if he wanted to go. He did know some of the other people who were to be attending the party. We went to the party together after church. I was in no way going to let him drive me there though. I drove him. He was so shy that I felt like I needed to talk to him. We were talking and he told me he had a boat and asked if I'd like to go fishing. I told him we could go sometime. I quickly found out that he was nothing like his friend that I couldn't stand.
My future husband had a computer business. Back in those days not many people had computers in their homes. I didn't have one. I wanted to find another job and needed to do my resume. I didn't want to do it on my typewriter at home. I wanted it to be on a computer so it would look better and show that I knew how to operate a computer. So I asked him if I could use his computer to write my resume. He agreed and I went to his office and typed up my resume. He helped me with it and was very nice. We still weren't dating at this time, but I was growing to at least like him. After my resume was finished he told me he had a friend whose brother was a lawyer and was looking for someone to work in his office. He gave him my resume and arranged an interview for me also. The interview was nothing like I had been to before. The lawyer had him to join us in the conference room and we just sat there and talked. He hired me right then and there!
Back then there were no cell phones, no texting, no emails either. If you wanted to talk you had to call or make sure you ran into that other person when you were out. I think he must had made it a point to run into me at church so that he could join me and others when we would go and hang out at Shoney's after Wednesday nights service. He would find me and ask me if I was doing anything after church Sunday. One time he even told me to go home and change my clothes because I was wearing a dress with heels. When I met up with him he took me to a car show and we looked at Mustangs. We were dating but not officially dating so to speak. It was a good 2 months before we realized that we were meant to be. I'm thinking this was around June. Before I started not officially dating him I went out with several different guys. There was a list! lol We had fun at the office updating and moving the guys around on that list. Once they got struck off that list they never made it back on that list! lol
He knew he wanted to marry me, but he didn't have a real good job that could support himself and me too. So he applied for a job in Maryland. I helped him find a suit and bought it for him to wear for his interview. He got the job and left for Maryland the end of August. After working there a good month or so he came back home and asked me to marry him after church up at the alter. I said yes of course. I remember telling people we were engaged and the first thing they wanted to see was the ring. There was no ring. He didn't have any money. He hadn't worked at his job long enough to qualify for a loan so he couldn't buy me a ring. It had to be true love to be engaged and marry a man without a diamond on my finger.
I remember when we told his parents that he was moving to Maryland. His mother thought I should go with him. We hadn't dated very long. I had a job here and I was still going to college. I was not going to quit college and my job to move there at that time. Plus, we weren't even engaged at that time. I was not going to live with a man without being married to him. Then when we were engaged and I called to tell her the good news. She said, "Do I have to come to the wedding?"! Yeah, my mother in law is a real winner...
We were married the day after my last final for college. Now remember he moved to Maryland the end of August. We only seen each other maybe 4 times before the wedding in December! We lived in a one car garage that was turned into an efficiency apartment that belonged to his boss. They called it "The Hole"! We were so poor that we couldn't afford a phone for 6 months. I'll write more later. There are so many stories within stories here.
Angela
