1982

This was the year I turned 18. Married 6 months, and adjusting to the Air Force way of life. I walked 3 miles into town just to look around the shops and sit for coffee before walking home. I crocheted baby layettes in hopes of holding a baby of my own. I called my parents for a ride and stayed with them when Gary was away, busses did not run past my house, and I could not take a dog on the bus.

So what did I look like. Well, it is awful to look back and see yourself, and it is never the same image that others have. I was a little smaller than now, and my eyes were not so bad they required additional attachments in order to see words in a book or faces of people I was talking to. My hair was long in front and back. Any pictures of me showed a fringe (bangs) that covered my right eye. I suppose I thought that if I couldn't see out of it why bother showing it. I still wore no make-up, in fact I was so down on anything artificial that for my wedding I washed and dried my own hair and saved the money a hairdresser would have charged for the same service.

I walked down into town with a feeling of pride that I had at least been able to find someone to love me and become a wife, because just 18 months previously I had finished school and the forecast for my future was not supposed to be bright.

October 3, I turned 18. Within 3 weeks Gary was in Germany and I was in a hospital. Miscarriage #1. How embarrasing that Saturday night was. All was well, we sat playing cards my parents, grandparents, and I, until I got sick. I wanted to just stay in bed. Not sure where my parents slept since I was in their bed.

Gary came home when it was time, we had told him the news over the phone, but since nothing could be done, my parents said I would stay there until he got back in a week or so.

My first Christmas as a wife. My husband agreed to go to my parents house. We arrived on Christmaas Eve. Of course a trip to the pub was in order, especially since I was now legal. I felt like a small child when I arranged with sisters Debbie, and Michelle and brother Neil to set the alram early. Supposed to be for 6a.m. oops! 4 a.m. was even earlier. We made tea and toast then woke up Gary and landed in Mum and Dads room at almost 5. My last Christmas here would be a continuation of all those that had gone before. Pillow cases with goodies and sillies, all bearing paper name tags taped to the front. Of course I started first, even though I was the oldest, because I open everything so slowly it would take longer for me to finish than everyone else. Mum and Dad even had a pillowcase for Gary in which he received his first Ferrari, of course in red, but too small to do much except put on a mantel. (It still sits on a shelp in the den.)

Before my first anniversary in May we broke the news to my parents that the next Christmas would not include us, we were being sent to California. It sounded so far away in time and distance. Those months flew. I found out about packing and moving, immigration, a criminal has had less fingerprint cards completed, and in September everything was shipped off. We moved in with my parents for the last 7-8 weeks that I would live on the same land as they.

My 19th birthday approached, and good news, another pregnancy. Sadly this would not work and a stay in the hospital was how my 18th year ended.

Wow! This was harder to write than I thought when I started. It may not even be something that belongs on the blog, but too late now.