"Will you go out with me?"

A half century ago I watched a beautiful girl sitting on the steps of my Art School busily drawing. She was making the most exquisite designs. Of course, trying to be cool, I said “Looks like cigarettes” Hundreds of rectangles came together to form an intricate pattern. Out of the crowd of students assembled on the steps she was the only one working.

So I made it my mission to get to know this industrious woman with long black hair…

But… She would have nothing to do with me…She kept telling me to brush off…

That evening at Hatfields Color Shop on Boylston St. in Boston, I tried to remember her name…Something that started with an M. I ran all the M names I could think of by my co-worker…”Martha, Marie, Mary”. We gave up.

The next day I nonchalantly went up to her and said…”I forgot your name. Will you go out with me?”…

Over several more days and after many more times she finally said, “If I go out with you will you leave me alone?”…

I will never forget our walk around the Charles River as she told me her life story. All about her family and her childhood, everything. That was when I knew I was in Love!

Marilyn is now my wife. 50 years. And we have shared everything. The good, and the not so good. “Hugs”, I call her sometimes, is now my best friend, my lover and the glue that holds my life together.

We have shared so many life experiences. Like our Art’s and Crafts business, and now e-Awakening.com. Try to be funny because when Marilyn laughs it is like the whole world is singing. There is a light coming from her smile that puts a smile in my heart.

And just to wrap up this memory I will relay one last thing…The time I went home to meet Marilyn’s family. The bus was full and everyone was quietly sitting looking out the windows as we made our way to Brockton Massachusetts. I don’t know what possessed me but I got up, faced my future wife, and started belting out “Strangers in the Night” with all the flourish of an entertainer on a stage…Marilyn did sink into the seat, a little embarrassed, and she has never gotten bored with my sense of humor.

As of November 25th, 2022 we have been together for 50 years and I am the luckiest guy alive…When we hold hands which we often do it feels like we are one…and we are!

Thanks to my most gorgeous and wonderful partner, Marilyn! Thank you for all these blessed years! “Your beautiful baby…Don’t change a thing!!!

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