So he said that one day when he was in 11th grade, he had a government job cleaning half of the school building. He made 12 dollars a month. Usually he would clean the girls' side first and then the boys', but on this particular day, he had done it in reverse order and cleaned the girls' side last. (I'm not sure what he meant by girls' and boys' sides, but that is a question for another day.) When he was finished, he stepped out on the porch (I think to dust out the chalkboard erasers) and the school bus showed up to bring the kids to school. My grandmother was the last one off the bus that day. He said when he saw her get off the bus (and I wish I could just post a video right here of the motions he made with his hands), he said his heart just went all a-flutter. He said after that moment, he was pretty much smitten. I said, "Love at first sight?" and he said no, that he had known her most of his life, they went to the same school, but something about that moment, he just knew that somehow, someway he was going to marry that girl. (There were tears in his eyes and a catch in his voice when he said this that I don't remember ever seeing, except the day I remember him crying at her funeral visitation almost 20 years ago). He said the rest of the day he was just completely beside himself thinking of her.
So since they were too young to do anything about it at that age, they remained friends and pen pals. He knew he would soon be going to the war and didn't want to make any kind of commitment, considering he would probably be "killed over there." So they just wrote to each other. But at some point during the war, he and another fellow got to come on a 30 day furlow. As soon as he got to town, he went straight to her house, but alas, she wasn't home and he had to wait another whole day to see her. This is where I kind of lost the story line.
He went back to the war, finished his tour, and when he came home they continued their friendship. He said he never actually asked her to marry him--never told her he wanted her, he said. But they started talking and planning and they were married December 21, 1945. My dad was born a year and a month later in January 1947. They had two more children, my uncle and aunt, five years apart each, because they decided they would be able to afford to have one in college at a time.
I'm so glad I asked him to tell me this story. Every girl needs to know some of the details of her romantic history. I don't want to speculate about what he was feeling as he told me his love story, but through his chokey voice and misty eyes, I sensed a bit of longing for that girl who stepped off the school bus more than 70 years ago.