Before the wedding - part two

During our daily phone conversations, we began to discuss being together. Everything seemed so perfect. We had common religious beliefs; we were three years apart in age (he was 32 and I was 29). Neither of us had ever been married before or had any children, and we both wanted to have kids. I am a very low maintenance kind of woman. I do not require a big house, fancy cars and clothes, or lavish vacations to make me happy. I love the adventure moving around affords. All I wanted was the love of a good man.

Marrying a sailor would be a good fit for my personality. It began to seem quite possible and quite real to me the more he and I talked. One of his concerns about getting married was about his future wife and the necessity of moving every three or so years that goes with military life. I had to laugh at that one. I had moved an average of twice a year, every year, since I graduated from high school. Some years I moved 3 or 4 times. Once every three years seemed like a very stable life to me.

On of the things we talked about early on was his pending change of duty station (in laymen’s terms, he would be moving to a new job site). He was scheduled to re-enlist for four years at the end of January. He already had his orders for his next duty station and he would be moving in June. The logistics were beginning to seem a bit tricky. I lived in Houston and he lived in California. I could move to California to be with him, date him, and see what happened. If things did not work out, I would be in a place far from home where I did not really know anyone. If we really hit it off, I could go with him in June. Problem was, he was moving to Hawaii. It really requires a plane ticket to get a person to Hawaii and a ship to get personal belongings to Hawaii. The military would not pay to move a girlfriend or a fiancée. We talked about the cost of me making two major moves in a 6-month period. Late one night, after at least 4 hours on the phone, he told me that the military would pay for everything if we were married.

Wait a minute! Did he say married? as in me, married to him? me? married to him? Things got hazy.... my head was spinning. I wished I had someone near by to pinch me.

... to be continued