Skip to main content

Seven Lives


In 2006 when HoneyBunch proposed marriage to me, I suggested we wait on making wedding plans until we met each other’s grown kids.  He argued that we didn’t need their permission, but I insisted and he relented.

He adores his sons, and I cannot breathe without mine, so if we were about to create a new family (one that liked and loved and got along with each other), we had to make sure we were all in agreement with our decision.

Seven lives were at stake.

He called his sons and asked them to come down for a visit.  One was in college nearby; the other worked in Dallas, but they came to meet me within the week.  That get-together went well. They were happy for their father and they liked me and I liked them.

Getting my kids to cooperate was another story.

All three knew I was dating HoneyBunch, but the marriage proposal came as a shocker.  They couldn’t believe that someone actually wanted to marry their Mama (and take her away from them).   

I lured them to a neutral location - a local restaurant where everyone would be forced to be on their best behavior.  

HoneyBunch brought flowers and presents and charmed my daughter, daughter-in-law, and grandson, but my two sons were not so easily bought.  They eyed him like a thug in a line up.

The girls giggled.  The grandson sat in his lap and looked up at him with big, blue eyes.  My sons waited for him to screw up.

He surprised them instead.

He talked to the boys about his love for me and how seriously he believed in marriage.  He asked for their blessing because I would not marry him otherwise. They melted like big, soft marshmallows and shook hands.

Seven separate lives were about to become one family.


Labels:

Comments

  1. Lea PhelpsJune 4, 2012 at 7:38 AM

    Rachel you did it again! You always make me smile and create a visual picture for me. I saw blue eyes and flowers. I saw your heart melt along with your sons'. Missed you!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Finding My Muse

1)Because my muse has a wicked sense of humor and visits me at odd times and in inconvenient places, I have learned to record inspirations/ideas immediately before I forget them or they dissolve into nothing. I carry small notebooks, own a digital recorder, and have been known to text messages home. I will scribble on anything – old napkins I find in my glove compartment or old receipts. I even pop out of bed in the middle of the night to jot things on sticky pads. 2)Calendars are great places to find topics. I use important dates, seasons, and upcoming holidays to plan blog posts. I can also go back into my work calendar to refresh my memory about meetings, conferences, or books I have read that might be worth sharing with others.   3)I will sit with a good cup of coffee, pen and paper ready, and read the newspaper searching for topics, interesting characters, or modern trends.  News channels and other newsfeeds are just as good.   4)I love to read the TV and movie guides for titles and…
4 comments
Read more

The Girl Who Eats Canned Spinach

I went to a Catholic elementary school run by strict Belgian nuns, and we could not leave the cafeteria until we ate everything served on our food tray. Once a week, they served warmed, canned spinach with our meal. The spinach tasted nothing like the way my grandmother made it, but I ate it. I gulped it down in three or four bites and it amazed my table mates. I told them we ate it at home so I was used to the taste. Now, my real problem began the day I ate the spinach off my friends’ trays so we could go play outside. As soon as the nun monitoring the cafeteria turned her back, my friends ate something off my tray I didn’t want, and I ate their serving of spinach. I only did it for two of my table mates, but the word spread. On the next Spinach Day, kids followed me to my table.I was suddenly very popular, and as soon as the nun marched off to the other end of the cafeteria, my friends and an army of others who only knew me as The Girl Who Eats Spinach, begged me to take their servin…
2 comments
Read more

Facing My Fear of Guns

With the ownership of firearms comes responsibility, so I had asked HoneyBunch several times to teach me how to shoot and to help me get my License to Carry. I got my wish two weeks ago. HB and I signed up to take a LTC class. He bought me a gun, one similar to his, that would be the type we needed to show shooting proficiency, and for one whole week he tried to get me to become familiar with it, but I was hesitant. I read the booklet that came with the gun. I practiced loading and shooting it in what is called dry shooting (no bullets), and since the flyer said I would have to shoot thirty shots at different distances, I finally tried with it loaded. I was a nervous wreck. The class of twelve turned out to be close to forty people. We were of all ages, colors, and genders, and I was glad I wasn’t the only woman my age. The shooting test came first, and we were separated into two groups. Those who were proficient (or thought they were) would shoot first, and those who were novices wou…
Post a Comment
Read more