More navel gazing.
January 31st, 2006 by sarah
My mom was 26 when she met my dad. They met in a bar in the panhandle of Texas and courted for about 3 weeks before he had to leave for his next hitch on his oil platform…in Quwait.
a month after he left, she got a letter from him. It said “here’s some money. Buy a ring and a plane ticket.”
She did.
In the late 60s, my mom left her place in a government typing pool to move to a foreign country- not one that was anywhere near what she was accustomed to. They had to hire a translator from the embassy there to make sure the marriage license was not actually a contract selling her. By Quwaiti law, all my dad had to do to divorce her was throw three rocks at her (he used to say he was carrying the 3rd rock in his pocket). She learned not to go to the souk by herself, and learned enough arabic to be able to converse with the houseboy. She learned that she was quite valuable chattel there because eastern men were fond of plump blondes, and she and my sister were almost kidnapped on more than one occasion. She started 9 different bible study groups on the English oil bases they lived in, even though the local law forbade it.
Talk about a leap of faith. She left the only home she’d ever known (at that point, she’d only been to Kansas), got a passport, and went to marry a stranger. They were married for 35 years until her death in 2002.
My mom wasn’t an aggressive woman. She was quite passive, let her kids get away with murder as long as they brought home good grades, didn’t curse that often, and her only vice was a good whiskey. She was quiet, could play the piano, and had a fabulous voice, which she reserved primarily for the church choir. But really, when I think of the jump she made when she was my age, I have to realize that she was the bravest woman I’ve ever encountered. She jumped across the ocean for a guy she had a good gut feeling about- even she would admit that she wasn’t sure she loved him at the time, she just couldn’t come up with a good reason not to try.
Maybe I’m just too jaded, but I can’t see jumping like that without a safety net, and it makes me a little wistful.
Enough of the navel gazing. Did you buy your beer? Remember, tonight is the State of the Union address. Happy hangover, ya’ll.
It’s funny how we rebel against our parents early in life, yet grow to admire them later on.