Tell Me Yours, I'll Tell You Mine

Tell Me Yours, I'll Tell You Mine

Quick! What's a happy memory that comes to your mind? I've got one. May I tell you?

Thinking twice about this isn't necessary, and because the simple incident was such a complete surprise, it holds a special place in my Bank of Happy Memory Moments. It has to do with someone I knew only slightly as a teenager then forgot for three decades. His life went one way, mine another, until we both turned forty-eight and re-met at our high school class reunion. Too old to have stars in my eyes again? No. Too old to have my heart beat a little faster when I heard his smiling voice on the telephone? Not at all. I even did a silly thing with a letter I mailed to him...sprayed the pretty violet-edged stationery with my favorite perfume so he would catch its fragrance as he opened the envelope. Only later did I learn his sense of smell had long gone kaput!

But the happy memory part, it's time for that. He was coming into town and had invited me to dinner. It would be our first real date after several weeks filled with long-distance phone calls. I was well beyond my teen years, but my actions were like an excited school-girl's. This man had stirred something in me that I thought was merely a thing of the past. It took me awhile to search my closet for just the right outfit and shoes to wear; I fiddled with my salt-and-pepper hair until I was satisfied that it was combed in the only way it had a mind to go. I was ready and waiting before the hour he said he would ring my doorbell. If I checked my lipstick once, I looked in the hall mirror half a dozen times before 7:00 o'clock that Friday evening!

Finally, my front doorbell buzzed. As soon as I opened the door, Denver popped in with a hearty "hello," swooped me up in his strong arms and effortlessly swung me around in the hallway...literally taking my breath away! I was no waif-thin girl in mid-life, but that man made me feel like I was a puff of pink cotton candy, light as air and pretty as eternal spring. In that spontaneous moment, by the time I was back on my feet, he had endeared himself to me forever. Six weeks later we were married!

At any age, ain't love grand!

Story ID:	4054
Written by:	Susan Hammett Poole (bio, contact, other stories)
Story type:	Family History
Location:	LaGrange GA USA
Year:	1994
Person:	Denver and me