THE SIGNIFICANCE OF OCTOBER 17

As a college senior

Today happens to be the anniversary of the first time Clark and I met!  Yep--October 17, 1968 is an important date in history--in our family, anyway :).

I was a senior in college that year, and Clark was a cadet police dispatcher in the Raleigh Police Department (NC) at the time.  Some of my college girlfriends and I headed to Raleigh for the annual State Fair, and on the way we stopped by (now follow closely, because this is intricate) "my girlfriend's boyfriend's house."  Whew.  Couldn't think of a better way to explain it.  Perhaps "the home of my girlfriend's boyfriend"?  That doesn't sound much better, does it?  But I digress . . .

My girlfriend (Sheila) and her boyfriend (Frank--who lived just outside Raleigh, in Garner) were going to the State Fair together, and we girls were gonna tag along.  While at Frank's house, his sister Carol and his brother Joe were also there.  Well, Joe (unbeknown to the rest of us), called his buddy Clark, who lived a few blocks away, to come over to see all those college girls at his house!

Young married couple

Clark did indeed come over a few minutes later and we were all introduced.  If my memory is correct, we ended up not going to the State Fair because it was pouring rain, but we all stayed at the house and ate spaghetti and enjoyed goofing off.  Frank and Sheila went anyway, but came back drenched!  The next week Clark invited me out on a date.  The rest, as they say, is history!  We'll be celebrating our 44th wedding anniversary in December.

Through the years, we've had a wonderful life together, good times as well as heartaches, as everyone does.  We have two wonderful daughters, two fabulous sons-in-law, three perfect grandchildren, and a great extended family.  Above all, we both became Christians after we married, and I would not trade one instant of our lives for anything.  God has been faithful, so good to us, and has blessed us far beyond anything we deserve.

Holly

Bethany

                                                                                                   
Clark is a keeper, for certain.  He is one in a million, and I am so thankful to share my life with him.  We've lived through his one-year deployment to Vietnam during our engagement (we married when he returned), two miscarriages, as well as all the ups and downs of life, such as when he was in college nine years after  high school when the Lord called him to become a teacher.  That is funny, because Clark always hated school as a student!  He retired nearly two years ago from teaching, and is now subbing as much as he wants in our county schools.  Our oldest daughter Holly was born when Clark was in college--I had a miserable pregnancy and had to quit work, so he had a lot of pressure on him at that time.  Then, when she was born, she had terrible colic for three months, so neither of us got much sleep.  Life is always interesting, and its problems always work themselves out.  But prayer and trust in the Lord are the keys.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY of our first meeting to my best friend, my fabulous husband, the world's best father and grandfather.  May we have many more decades together.

Selfie, Oct. 2014