This coming Wednesday, April 29th is going to be my 32nd Wedding Anniversary. However, Dan and I have known each other for 38 years. I thought that I would take a few moments and share our early life together here on my Blog. I will update it over the next week or so. What a fun journey this has been…and writing down the memories and reading them myself, makes it even more fun!
When I was about 12 years old, I had moved with my Foster Family from Artesia, California to Chino. This was the equivalent of moving from Seattle to Wenatchee. I often went with my Mom to visit older or sick individuals from our church as she was the Pastor. I think she just didn’t like to go out and about alone, and I enjoyed the 1:1 attention (no surprise huh?) The Duckworth’s had older children who were married and a few had almost grown children themselves. Their oldest daughter Wanda was married to Ernie Johnson and lived in Washington State. (Still does) Wanda’s Mother in law was also named Bertha and lived just about a mile away from where we had moved to. My Foster Mom and I were going to pay a visit to her one sunny summer afternoon. When we arrived, we were greeted by this adorable short woman who was thrilled that we had come by. She offered us a cold drink and I sat down as the two Mother in Laws talked about Kids and Grandkids. While we were sitting there, it was apparent that there was someone mowing the backyard. A little while later, in walks this adorable young boy. He came in to get a drink as he was very warm (despite having no shirt on and wearing shorts) He was a little older than I was and had thick light brown hair and was very tanned. I was a little embarrassed as he was shirtless and I could see the top and bottom of his boxers thru his Levi corduroy cut offs. Yes….I checked him out good! Let’s just say that he had a tan line…and it was more of the male physique than I had ever seen in my short life thus far. This boy’s name was Danny and his Grandmother wanted to be sure and introduce him to me since I was new to the area. He was 14 and also had a younger Sister named Rhonda, who was close to my age. I was swooning and don’t believe that I really paid too much attention at the time to any of what she was telling me. Danny’s Dad Norman was the brother of Wanda’s husband, and this woman was their Mom. My oldest foster Sister Wanda was Danny's Aunt! It didn’t make us cousins or anything, but because we were now “Family” our paths were destined to cross on several occasions over the next few years.