Bill didn't love me when we got married. I wasn't his type at all, I was the total opposite of his former wife and it took him some time to stop trying to re-make me in her image. I felt I was totally out-classed by both of them and I allowed this for awhile before my inner nutjob came out and I began to regularly rip his face off.
We met on a blind date-set up by my bishop, no less. I was dating someone else quite seriously and I didn't want to go out with Bill. My bishop said, "I'm not asking you to marry the guy. He's just divorced and I want to fix him up with a date." I grudgingly agreed to go out with him.
You guys, he was so hot, tall, dark, and handsome with a deep voice and a commanding air. He spent our first date talking about his ex-wife (who'd cheated on him and left him with their children). I figured he was too "pretty" and on the rebound and trouble and when he asked me out again, I said no. Also, I was almost engaged to somebody else.
But I broke up with the other guy (long story) and I needed a date for this ward thing. So I called Bill, totally blase about it and asked him to go. We went out a couple of times and the other guy was killed in a terrible accident. That was a rough time in my life. But Bill and I bonded.
He seemed to really like me, but I think it was all physical as I look back on it. He proposed about six weeks after we began dating in earnest. I must confess that I wasn't really in love with him, either. He was handsome and rich (I thought, what a joke :) and active in the church. He seemed perfect.
We did have an idyllic six weeks of engagement and a wonderful honeymoon. Everything ended when we had to come home and take care of three kids and deal with the laundry and bills. And he realized he wasn't married to his ex-wife anymore and I realized I wasn't married to Jesus reincarnated.
I was prettier than she was but not as organized. Not as good a cook or housewife. I drove him crazy with my emotional demands. He thought now that he had a babysitter all he had to do was go to work and bowhunting. And bowling and play poker with his friends.
This is sort of funny, but he gets mixed up about "our song." He still thinks it was "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" which was his and Julie's song. Every once in awhile he will say "you are the sunshine of my life." I reminded him once that was Julie's song, but he's old and senile now, so I just look at him and sort of smile and think "I married a moron who only looks like Gregory Peck."
It was rough for the first, oh, 24 1/2 years. LOL. I threw him out regularly the first two years, had a total breakdown from exhaustion and stress. Through it all, I cooked and bottled and stretched the few dollars we had to clothe the kids and provide them with lessons and bikes.
But I can honestly say that, while I've been legally married for 25 years, I've only been happily married, oh--maybe six months. That would be the first month, this last month, and a day here and there in between. I won't know if we had a good marriage till we're both dead and can look back and see if it worked after all.
And I still often think if I had to do it over again, I'd be a ministering angel to all you guys and skip all the grief of mortality.
4 comments:
AngieB, it's got to be more than just six months. I've gone back through some of your posts. You two seem to do okay :)
Your point about ministering angels--I get that, though.
Don't you think that a lot of young Mo's get married quick so they can, well, you know....I think we learn to love one another as time goes on.
Well, I've always been in love with him (since about a week after he proposed), but I haven't always been happy with him.
I don't think I would have been happy with anybody (that inner nutjob thing).
Marriage is just really really hard.
But yeah, I think most people get married so they can, well, you know :). Except the ones who don't care if they're married or not.
I wonder how typical your feelings are among the married. I read that a survey of couples showed that some who defined themselves as unhappy at one point later reported being happy.
Thanks for sharing your story, Anne. I am not sure that I would want to share that information about myself on the Internet but I enjoyed your story.
Have you ever thought about going back to college? You would probably love a couple of women studies classes.
I agree that with Barb in the sense that most families are dysfunctional in one way or another. That does not mean that one needs to settle. Hence the suggestion to take a few classes . . . for fun and interest rather than credentials.
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