A Love Story continued ...

The day arrived for us to head to her house and we took off from school for the 4 hour drive. It was snowing a lot and the drive became very slow and treacherous. We into the trip we were traveling on an interstate and traffic was inching along at about 15-20 mph. It was slick, cold, snowing and visibility was poor. I saw all the brake lights up ahead of me come on, so I applied my brakes. I did it gently but the car began to slide anyway, I did all the tricks you are supposed to, but the cars in front and to the side of me came to a complete stop and we didn’t until we slowly slid into one of them. I put on the flashers, got out to inspect and talk with the other car. The other drive waved me off and I couldn’t see any damage on either car, but I gave me my information anyway. As I got back into the warm car I was upset. Ticked at myself, the weather, and really irritated that I was going to have to contact the insurance company and my Dad in case the other driver filed a claim. With all of that churning in me I looked over at the girl had fallen in/chosen to love and realized that she was laughing! She was trying hard to conceal it, but I could tell she was chuckling. I asked “Are you laughing?” She tried to deny it, but it is hard to deny you are laughing when you are laughing and tears are running down your cheeks. At that moment I wondered what I had gotten myself into and I was really steamed. Her explanation to me, after apologizing profusely, was that she has a tendency to laugh in times of crisis. I have discovered in the 35+ years of marriage that it is often true. It is not that she doesn’t care. There is just something in her that has to laugh when she someone falls, etc … I still love her, but this took some getting used to.

The visit at her house went well, though I was very nervous the whole time. Her mother and I did better during this encounter. I met her Dad and that seemed to go well. That is always a biggie for the guy to meet his girl’s Dad. I have 2 daughters and I looked at every guy with suspicion when I first met them. I also had to pass the test with her sister, brother in law and nephews and a niece. That went very well. The 4 or 5 days went by and we headed back to college. The trip back to college went much better than the trip to her house, the weather was better, there was no accident and thereby there was no laughing at my misfortune.

Our relationship was moving full steam ahead at this point. It was soon to be obvious that this was who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, but of course there were still a few more adventures before I acted on that fact. Such as …