Tuesday, February 13, 2018

I chose this life

I chose this life fifty-three years ago when my beloved Warren and I became engaged.......on Valentine's Day, February 14, 1965. When we married seventeen months later, we embarked on a lifetime of love and laughter.

What a ride it was! We lived at sixteen different addresses, from the East Coast to the West Coast to the South and back, in six different states, all providing adventures and memories beyond the normal. Who else would think of driving 90 miles, over the mountains, from the Mojave Desert (Edwards Air Force Base) into Los Angeles for a Kosher sandwich and then drive right back again?

On a thirty day tour of the West, we brought our car into a Denver dealership to be serviced, flew out to Chicago for a few days, flew back to Denver to pick up the car and continue our tour. Having the car serviced while we took the side trip offered a safe place to leave the car during those few days!

At the beginning of that tour, Triple A made a mistake and routed us to the north rim of the Grand Canyon (when there were absolutely no tourist places). When we got there and asked the Ranger where the Moqui Lodge was, he nearly convulsed with laughter and then told us it was only about 30 miles from where we were except that there was a big hole in between! We raced around to the south rim (after calling the Lodge to keep the room), arrived about 10 p.m. and thankfully got the room amidst several people who were looking to find a place to sleep.  We toured national parks all over the West and sent postcards back home exclaiming this was what was meant by America the Beautiful.

Stories. Our life together was made up of extraordinary stories, all filled with hope, joy, some misfortune, excitement, wonder but always filled with love and laughter. Always.

Those stories live on in my memories and bring me great joy. It was always the best of times, no matter what happened, because we had each other and we had our sons who have always added untold joy and happiness to our lives. I'm reminded of these lyrics from a Jacques Brel/Rod McKuen song:  We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun. That we did, all of our lives. Oh, my darling, I chose well. We chose well.

Copyright © 2018, Reisa Sterling Miller. All Rights Reserved