37 Terrific Years

In May Doug and I celebrated our 37th anniversary of our first date. That was the beginning of something very precious that has grown more precious each year through our life. That date was like no other date I had been on in the past. We were totally at ease and comfortable with each other. This was actually a blind date but I knew who Doug was and briefly knew his sister Kathy.
I was a member of the Sorority, Lambda Delta Sigma. We were having a dinner-dance and I was disillusioned with guys at the moment. My last couple of dates had been pretty strange. There was no one I was interested in asking to it.
Our Sorority President, Lu Gena Myers, asked Doug if he would take me to the dance. She gave him my name and phone number. Doug asked the boy sitting next to him if he knew me? It just so happened that I had gone out with this guy the week before. He was a very different person, I didn’t want to hurt his feelings and so I went out with him as a friend. He was really nice but I knew we would only be friends. I was a little distant that night. He could have said something mean but he just told him that he didn’t think Doug would like me. Thank goodness he was brave enough to give me a call.
We had a fun visit when he called to ask me out. There was something right from the very beginning about us being together that felt so right. After a few minutes of talking I knew that he was Kathy’s brother. He did not know who I was. We talked for quite a while.
The night of the dinner-dance we had so much fun being crazy in a fun crazy totally at ease way. He came from a family of six children the same as I did. Both of our families had what we needed monetarily but extra things we earned the money for. I am grateful that from a young age we learned to depend upon ourselves to help financially. It made us stronger and less dependent on our parents.
We both loved music. Doug loved classical music and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I loved songs from movies, church songs, and I guess what some would say, bubble-gum and elevator music. We have blended these all together and we both enjoy them all.
Doug taught me a lot of new dance steps. We had so much fun dancing.
Our favorite foods were not alike. His favorite food was melted cheese. The thought of melted cheese would gross me out. I’m not big on milk or cheese. I’ll take ice cream any time to get my calcium.
That evening when he took me home we talked for hours. He asked me out and I couldn’t because I was going out of town. I’m glad that he was persistent and asked again. He invited me to his fraternity Steak Fry. I knew that he was someone special and he treated me very well.
The next day I week out to lunch with my cousin and a friend. I told them about my date and I really felt like I would marry Doug. I asked them if they would be bridesmaids at my wedding. Of course I was just goofing around but it seemed like a good possibility.
On Thursday nights I usually went to dance in Ogden that was sponsored by returned Missionaries, to earn money to help support other missionaries. It was called Metro. Doug found out that I go there and he came that night for the first time. I was excited to see him. He asked me to dance and we danced a couple of songs having a great time. He was teaching me some new dance steps.
When a couple became engaged they would clear the floor and the engaged couple would dance to the “Hawaiian Love Song”, alone. Everyone was looking for chairs to sit on, there were two chairs left. We raced a couple I knew for them and slipped. The hardwood floor had just been refinished. I hit the chair with my arm pretty hard. Doug flew into me. It really hurt but I didn’t tell Doug that when he asked how I was. He was also hurt and said he was fine.
After the engaged couple danced a friend asked me to dance. Doug didn’t ask anyone else. He waited for me to come back and we danced the rest of the night together. I went there with friends and I wasn’t driving. Doug took me home. I liked the way he was so loyal to me. (The last dance I went to with a date, the guy I was with flirted with my cousin and knew that loyalty was an important quality that I wanted my husband to possess.)
Doug asked me to his house for dinner and to go to church the next Sunday. Doug lived in Bountiful and I lived in Ogden. He came to pick me up. He didn’t seem to be in a hurry and I asked if we could go over to my friends so that she could meet him. He said sure and I didn’t realize that this diversion was making us late for church.
When we got to church, we walked to the second row in the front where all of his family usually sits. As we were sitting there I watched down the line members of Doug’s family leaning over to see me. It was funny to watch. I looked on the stand and there was my cousin’s husband. It was fun to see a familiar face. He was the High Councilman that was speaking that day.
Doug’ mother played the organ and I get to meet her until we were at their house. When I met her I felt like I had always known her. Dinner was delicious and his family was a lot of fun. I enjoyed getting to know all of them. It was great and so was all of his family.
During dinner we heard an ambulance siren. Later we found out that a little girl from Doug’s ward had been hit by a car and killed. (A couple of years later our first child would be buried next to her.)
After dinner we were visiting and Doug’s Dad asked me what happened to my arm. I didn’t realize that I had a huge bruise where I had hit the chair several days before at the dance. When I mentioned that must be what it was from, Doug told me that he had probably cracked a rib and he had a tight bandage on it to keep from hurting. We had both lied about being all right. It was a hard fall.
The Sigma Gamma Chi bar-be-cue was a lot of fun. I guess we were like most other couples in love kind spent most of our time off together doing our own thing. By this time I was pretty sure Doug was the person that I would marry. That night he kissed me for the first time.
My married sister Cathy wanted to meet Doug and she had asked me to invite him to our family reunion in Bothwell on Memorial Day. I asked him and he accepted. It was a great day. Ken my brother-in-law is a lot of fun and we all laughed a lot. We spent the whole day together. After the reunion we went to Cathy’s for a bar-be-cue.
Each night we were out together we would get busy talking and stay out in front my house visiting in his car. The time would fly by so fast. Our time together never seemed long enough.
Those two and a half weeks we were together 72 hours on 8 dates. Doug asked me to marry him. It has been a wonderful 37 years. I am so grateful for him. He asked me to be his "Passport into Eternity". That was so romantic. We were married five months later in the Salt Lake Temple.