How Jeff and I met.

 Since today is Valentine's Day I thought I'd share with you how I met my Jeff.

In was 1971. I'd taken some time out before planning to attend college and become a grade-school teacher.

I'd moved out on my own and worked at a steak house in Salem, Oregon.  Myself and two of the girls I worked with decided to rent an apartment together.  We found one not to far from where we worked.

The day we moved in a couple of guys offered to help.  Seems they'd moved out of the apartment we were moving in to.  Their's was now on the lower level of the complex.

Jeff was one of the guys.

We accepted their help..that's how it all began.  At first I wasn't interested in Jeff.  I was seeing someone else at the time.  Jeff didn't seem my type, a little nerdy.  He'd been out of the Navy for about six months and was making up for lost time where the ladies were concerned.

One night after I'd gotten off work, I came home, planned to change my clothes and take off to meet the guy I was seeing.  Well, the battery went dead in my car.

Jeff was home an offered to help, but there was nothing to be done at that time of night.

So we spent the next hours talking.   The next night he came up to the apartment to ask if he'd left his cigarette lighter there. He smoked then.  I knew he hadn't, but invited him in to look for it anyway.

We had a whirlwind of a courtship.  Jeff and the guys moved into a house the next week, and I moved along with them.

I should say that we met on my birthday, September 4th.  On Christmas Eve Jeff proposed to me.  We were at my folks' place, encased in separate sleeping bags.  My dad didn't care if we were living together, we weren't married, so no sharing a bed at his place.  One thing about my dad. When I moved in with Jeff, I went and told Mom and then said, you can tell Dad.  This happened in October and then I took Jeff to my  parents place for Christmas. By the way, when I told Mom I was moving in with Jeff, her response was, 'Well, we raised you right, so it must be more than just sex.'

Well at just before midnight, Christmas Eve, Jeff proposed and I said yes.  Like everything else about our relationship we didn't waste any time getting married.  We tied the knot, January 22, 1972 in a small church in Salem. Our family and friends were there.  With the help of my sister-in-law to be, I made my own wedding dress. Jeff's sister and brother-in-law stood up with us and that left his then two-year-old niece by herself.  In the middle of the ceremony, she got out of her seat, made her way to the piano and decided to serenade us all.

The reception was held at my grandparent's house, and on the way there Jeff bent over and ripped out the pants of the suit he was wearing, so we had to make a detour to where we lived for him to change his pants.

That was all forty-one years ago.  Sometimes how long you know someone doesn't matter.  It only takes finding the one right  someone.

Happy Valentine's Day.