Chatterbox Tells All

We first met in college. We had the same major, not a real popular one, so most of our major classes were together. I had noticed him, he had noticed me, but we had only spoken in passing. Our professor assigned the class certain tasks and he paired us together. We hit it off and began dating once the assignment was finished. I fell in love pretty quickly, but he pooh - poohed it, fearing commitment. He graduated a semester before I did and we lost track of each other. 22 years later, I logged onto our alumni association's locator web site, typed in his name (along with some other friends I lost track of) and fired off some notecards asking how the last 22 years had been treating everyone. He was the only one who responded. He was living and working in Coeur d'Alene, I was living and working in a very small town in Iowa. We corresponded for about 3 months online and thru phone calls. He flew back to see family still living in Iowa and we arranged to meet for lunch. We continued our long distance relationship....I flew to CdA a couple of times, he would drive or fly back to Iowa for holidays. He proposed on New Years Eve 2002, we were married in Minnesota in August 2003 and my son & I moved to Idaho.

We both came with baggage....I had a son, he had history. We knew we couldn't "change" one another. Before we were engaged, we talked about important stuff...finances, raising a child, the differences in our religions. Other than knowing we were 2 separate people joining together very complicated lives, communication has been at the heart of our relationship. We have had serious discussions about health issues, elderly parental concerns, what retirement will be like, raising a teenager, and through it all we have managed to maintain our love, respect and friendship for each other as well as a healthy sense of humor. We both have our "off" days, and may need some alone time for a few hours. But we know that we are here for each other.

Chatterbox