He was getting closer to the date 7/27 where it would mark 55 years they would have been together if she didn't leave him some 4 1/2 years ago. That's a long time to build up memories, memories that are sweet to remember but sour to the taste that they couldn't enjoy all of them with one another. It seems that the stations he listens to always play the songs at this time of year that bring the memories echoing loudly from the past.
"Teach Me Tonight" was just playing and that was the song that was playing on the very first date they were on. He pursued her vigorously until she finally agreed to a date. They got into the car he switched on William B. Williams, WNEW, and the Demarco sisters were singing that song. he remembered thinking maybe this would be his lucky night as the vocal started "Did You Say I Have A lot to learn..............Teach me tonight!".
Their date was by the waterfront and they did share a kiss he still remembers some 57 years later.
Just the other day they were playing on this station, "Don't Take Your Love From Me" which brought him to their first dance together on their wedding day. He was home on leave and they were to be married and go on their honeymoon then live off-base until his discharge about a year later. A few days prior to that Saturday, he went to visit a favorite Uncle who was dying of lung cancer, he knew he was sick but not that sick. This was a sadness he would remember to this day, his Uncle wasting away, his aunt so helpless and his cousin who he always considered more sister than cousin frightened but trying to be strong. His cousin did make the Mass because she was at the back of the church when they came from the altar and they kissed but she had to get back to the death bed. He cried inside for all of them while he was overjoyed because she was his and he hers forever. Something he never understood but experienced the heights of happiness while the sadness of the day pulled him back to earth.
Their first dance, "Don't Take Your Love From Me" played as he whispered the lyrics in her ear, "Tear A Star From Out The sky and The Sky Feels Blue...............Don't take your love from me." And soon the day was over and they raced home to change because they were off to Miami Beach for their Honeymoon.
The plane ride was horrendous, his chair was broken, there were screaming bratty kids disrupting everyone but nothing could take the joy that was to be theirs in a few hours. When they entered the room she was upset because she booked a waterfront room and their room faced Collins Avenue. He calmed her down explaining the drapes would be drawn most of the time they were there. He ordered orange juice and she changed as they waited for room service. When it came, the drapes were drawn, the radio was put on and "Moon Over Miami" was playing as they forgot the orange juice.
The following years were filled with joys and tears and more than some children. Through all the rough spots they never went to bed without making up. They never stopped loving. She was a very good mother with great instincts. The fact of the matter he always thought she loved the children more than him. She probably did. But he remembered when most of them were conceived and treasured the moment of such love, spiritual and physical giving them the present of the physical expression of their great love. He used to tell her that when they died he prayed they'd go together but she wasn't happy with that thought. She always was concerned as to how the children would get along if they weren't around so he changed his thought that he should die first because he couldn't stand to be without her.
As I told you there were a lot of ups and downs. Some where around the late 1980's as they were experiencing another rough patch, he sadly thought she had lost interest in him and his crazy ways. Whitney Houston was singing, "This time we almost made it. Didn't we girl?". But not a few years after she suffered a great heart attack which she recovered from nicely but she started to show traces of Alzheimer's and as they went from Doctor to Doctor he understood the rough patches were not from the girl he married but from the girl who was having her brain destroyed, eaten up by this lousy disease. The song went from Houston's to The New World Seekers, "I'll Never Have Another You"......"There's a new world somewhere...........
But I'll never have another you."
As she sank deeper into the disease she lost who he was. He wasn't hers anymore but "A nice guy who helps me". But when they made love she would suddenly recognize him and at the moment her face would return to the state he knew and she would say his name. Until the time came when that stopped and she told everyone he was abusing her and maybe one day would maim him. He knew that no matter what state she was in she could never do that. She had to be washed, cleaned and treated as you would treat a baby. She ended up in a Nursing home where the Aides knowing how much he loved her would allow him to help them clean her, assisting with the lift and applying the creams so she would not have bed sores. But he was happy just being able to be with her. She developed cancer and some other things and then she slipped into eternity.
Years passed and he was sure that his life was over with hers. Some suggested that he should let it go but he wasn't depressed just resigned. His life was great joy filled with love for her. He never told God, in his prayers and discussions with him, that he felt cheated, or was angry. Not many could have been so blest. But he did suggest to God that perhaps the time had come for him to meet her again for what could be left for him here. And God listened and God chuckled. Not revealing anything he let him find his own way.
Life has a quirky way about it. That's like saying God is a bit quirky. But purely by chance he met someone and despite all the things that say that this is not a good match, it just might be. Now he isn't suggesting to his creator that maybe he should leave this earth, not just yet. Let us see how this plays out. He will never forget his first love but that doesn't mean that a second one can't be as exciting and thrilling but in a different way.
There aren't any specific songs as the music is just beginning to play and there are a lot of songs to be sung.
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