RUNNEMEDE REMEMBERED

Growing up in a small town in Southern New Jersey


Wednesday, October 24, 2007

My husband

Some have asked why I don't talk about my husband on this BLOG. Well, folks, I met him when I was 17, and wasn't in Runnemede long after that. Most of this is about my life growing up and he wasn't a part of that.

I must say, though, that my husband was given to me by God and God doesn't make mistakes, even though at times I've wondered about that. God gave me a man who loves me and supports me and is kind to me. We have been married for 41 years and so he is more a part of my life than my early years were, but that isn't what this BLOG is about.

Perhaps someday I'll start a BLOG about his family and he can add to it, or at least tell me what to write.

Alan and I are both first children, both strong-willed, and both intellectual in different ways. I am rash and "go for it", he is a slow-thinker, and ponders every decision, which as you can imagine drives me nuts.

Case in point: we recently had to purchase a new car. If it had been me, I would have just gone to the Hyundai dealer and bought the cheapest thing on the lot -- or at least the cheapest thing that suited my need. Since I have difficulty getting in and out of a car, and I have knee problems, I had two priorities: one was that the car had to have grab bars on both sides just inside the door so I could hoist myself into the car, and the other was that when I moved my foot from gas to brake, I didn't have to hoist my leg, and could just neatly move my foot from one pedal to another. So, I found that all Hyundais were suitable for me. But we didn't stop there. Oh, no. We went to Honda -- the pedal problem (we were getting ride of our Honda because of my knees, but maybe they had changed something since 1998); then we went to Chevrolet, same difficulty -- no ease with the pedals; then we went to Mazda -- I sort of like the look of it, but the pedals were still a problem, and grab bars weren't standard. We went to Toyota also. Too expensive.

You need to know that my husband is quite ill presently and how he got the energy to do all this I don't know, but he did. I would have stopped when I found a car I liked. After all, we did research it all on-line. Sorry, not good enough.

Anyway, we got the cheapest Hyundai and realized as soon as we drove it from the lot that it wouldn't work, it was too bumpy and Alan was in agony the whole time he was in the passenger seat. The trial run we gave the car didn't seem as bumpy as the car did in the dark of night.

So, since the paperwork hadn't been completed (thankfully) when we drove the car home, we returned early the next morning and upgraded to a higher priced Hyundai so my husband would be able to accompany me on occasion. The new car is for driving around town, which is mostly my job.

Anyway, I am thankful mostly for my husband's tenacity. And he is cuddly as a teddy bear!

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