I asked the kids what story they wanted to hear about from their grandpa and Madie wanted to know how dad met mom. So, here's the story:
Dad was a freshman at Philadelphia College of Bible and his friend Ron Roberts was friends with mom. Her name was "Roper" and his was "Roberts", so they sat next to each other in several classes and were friends. So, towards the end of dad's freshman year, he had been introduced to and started to get to know mom. They went away for the summer, didn't correspond or anything, but when their sophmore year started, they became better friends. Mom was dating a friend of dad's named Cruiser Baxter and dad briefly dated mom's roommate, but mom and dad just sort of hit it off and would pal around together and really just had a great friendship. Towards the end of their sophmore year both mom and dad went to an end of the year campout for all the sophmore class. It was a small class of about 150 and the chaperone was mom's roommate's brother who was studying to become a minister. He decided to do a mock wedding ceremony to practice and dad asked mom if she would be in the wedding with him. She said yes, so this guy mock-married mom and dad. When they got back to school that Monday, dad would call her "wife" (something he still does to this day) and even got her a little fake ring, which she wore. She would write him notes signing them "from your wife" and dad would write her notes saying "your husband John". Even though they were dating other people, they continued to write during the summer and dad said he looked so forward to letters from her. They were falling in love through their letters and not even really realizing it. :-) A couple months after they returned to school, mom said to him, "Are you ever going to ask me out?" "Well, sure." he said and he invited her to come back to his hometown of Runnemede (since he was a commuter) to go to a football game at his old high school on Nov. 2, 1968. Now, because this was a conservative christian college, they weren't allowed to touch, but after they got off school property and made their way to the bus stop, dad reached over and started holding her hand. And, she let him. They took the bus to his house and he introduced her to the family. He said Grandpa loved her instantly and she just fit right in, helping around the house and everything. When he said goodnight to her that night, he told her he had a wonderful time and said goodbye. No kiss or anything. And, she said the same. That night he couldn't sleep. He realized he loved her. They dated 2 more years after that. He proposed to her before he left for seminary and they got married after his freshman year at Grace, in 1971. They just celebrated their 38th wedding anniversary last month and it all started with a mock wedding in 1968.
9 years ago
My father really did love Sue (your mom), and he could always hear here. He never asked her to repeat anything she said, like he did us, which drove us (his children) to distraction.
ReplyDeleteSo, I would have to say that he loved her "best" in his doddering years. And she really did take care of him and my mom when she was visiting.
She was so funny with Grandpa. Every year we'd go out there to visit, especially after Grandma died, she would clean his house. She'd take all the crap that was on the dining room table and make him go through it with her, throwing away what wasn't needed. She'd say, "Do you need this?" and he'd be like, "Well, yes, because..." and she'd look at him and say, "no you don't" and throw it away. She would smile and he'd give her this horrified look, but underneath it was this smirk. It was a riot to me!
ReplyDelete