Early June in Oklahoma. Hot. The evening light slants through the stain glass windows and heats up the church. Guests arrive. The mothers are seated. The wedding memories start. Actually, wedding memories started the night before. There had been the rehearsal and its dinner. Wade, being best man, crashed out for the weekend with me […]
Seven months is a good amount to be engaged. Not too long for the groom and just long enough to get a wedding planned. Dona and I began with Doris, the church’s wedding planner. Doris had the scoop on protocol. She procured the wedding décor from the church. She knew where to go for flowers […]
While Dona and I were at college, we knew some guys who felt it ‘unspiritual’ to date. I wondered if they expected a lady dressed in white to show up at the door and say, “I’m God’s will for your life.” But I do understand their trepidation. It’s a scary thing to be young and […]
Before I leave dating lessons learned from Dona, I’ll give a few dating rules: Three lighthearted rules from Dona and three heavy rules from me. Scoff if you want, but they worked toward our relationship. Dona’s Dating Rule #1: Never Date a Guy Who Owns a Van A van could mean… If you can’t figure […]
I started this particular blog series about lessons learned from Dona, but several lessons we learned together. What follows are three that stayed with us throughout our time together. These lessons came early in our relationship, from dates during the cool 80’s. As time progressed, we tagged these lessons by the three restaurants we had […]
Another three short lessons learned from Dona on dating. In the last story, we had left my past self wondering if a girl friend-zoning one guy meant the same for all guys. I found that not to be the case. Now forward a bit in time. Common Dislikes Bring People Together Each college spring break, the […]
Dona was the consummate Christmas traditionalist. That is, of a sort. Her traditions weren’t the norm. She celebrated Christmas in unexpected ways, with customs refreshingly inspired. Learning was sure to follow. Act Like You Like It Even Though You Hate It I told my kids I was writing this blog, and two of them […]
I’ve been thinking back on my life with Dona and tabulating the lessons I learned from her – too many for one blog. So I give you three lessons I learned before we even dated. The first requisite was: We meet. Don’t Be Too Quick to Judge Dona and I almost missed each other. And I […]
