Fun Monday #37, Three times the Charm

Janet, @ The Planet of Janet is today's Fun Monday host. Thanks Janet for hosting your second week out. You're a gem!
Her choice for today's fun: Describe your meeting with your spouse/significant other. I especially want to hear "meet cute" stories. And it doesn't have to be your actual current sig/other. Perhaps the "meet cute" story is a former boy/girlfriend... or even a best friend. Illustrate with photos, of course.

A few weeks ago I covered the basics in one of those MEME's that play tag around the blogosphere. I've added a few details and a couple of pictures to spice it up. Here goes - - -

* * * * * * *

Kari, one of my best friends, was getting married and requested I sing at her wedding. ( We sang together during our high school years.) She also asked another friend to sing at her wedding. (She met him at college.)

I was already married and the mother of a little blond toddler. Kari was marrying “the boy next door.”

Bits and pieces of that weekend are clear to me; the rest is hazy. I vaguely recall the wedding coordinator telling me where to stand. I am sure she also gave instructions to the young man with his guitar. I don’t remember what song I sang. I remember the young man with the guitar played and sang “The Wedding Song.” I thought his glasses were much to dark for his fair hair. (Notice that he and the organist are both smiling. My girdle must have been too tight.)

Fast forward few years and there were drastic changes in my life.I was divorced

One afternoon my mom called me at work to tell me my daughter was very sick. By the time I arrived, her temperature had spiked causing her to experience a seizure. I was so frightened that I called 911.

Two paramedics responded. I was a frantic young mother so my memory of this is also obscure. I remember that I had my little girl in a tepid bath when they arrived.Other than a fever, her vital signs were normal. They encouraged me to take her in and meet the pediatrician at the hospital. I learned that I needed to be proactive when my child had a temperature spike. (It never happened again and all was well.)

At the time, I did not realize this was the second time I crossed paths with the young man with the guitar. He was wearing contacts and a different haircut. I might have recognized him under different circumstances, but I only had eyes for my sick child. (The two most handsome paramedics in the department were at my house that day and I missed it.)

(this is a picture of them about that time in the local newspaper. They were showing off some new equipment.)

Another year went by, and I was dating a fellow. It wasn't a serious relationship. We had some common interests and I was comfortable without commitments. That is why I was surprised when he gave an unforced confession about another woman. I should have been hurt and angry and all those other emotions a jilted woman feels. I wasn’t any of those things.

His confession and my lack of feeling told me our connection was weak. I said, “Hit the road Jack.” He said, “No, I want to marry you.”

That shook me up much more than his first admission. I told him "you aren't the one" and I insisted that "I am too soon divorced." I was not ready to pledge my love again.

That very week my friend Kari was in town for a visit. When she found out that I was no longer seeing “Jack”, she was ecstatic,

“Do you remember the fellow who sang at my wedding?” She was animated.

“He’s been singing with a woman, and now he needs a new singing partner.” Next, as though it was an after thought she offered, “And he is divorced, too.”

I met him that Saturday night for the third time. To make a long story short...yes. That is our wedding picture.

(ps. Yes, he forgave me for giving him a permanent. I don't know what I was thinking

Here I am with one of our eight grandchildren. Doing curly blond penance.