A personal love story

This is my story about how I met my wife and my son, forty four years ago, and I’m still living it today.

‘It was 1980, the bush war in Rhodesia had ended, and I came to California to start a new life, and have an adventure. I was twenty, and had spent the last three and a half years in the African bush fighting communist terrorists. I was open for anything, no expectation.

I stayed with my cousin and her husband, and they introduced me to a favorite cousin of her husband to show me around the area and keep me entertained. After three failed attempts to connect, we finally met when she showed up at the house to go camping on the beach in Santa Cruz for the weekend. She walked in unannounced and asked where Guy was. She was the first hippie I had ever seen. twenty three, long blonde hair with thin braids dangling on both sides of her face, beads and feathers attached, wearing daisy dukes, a leather vest, beads on the fringes, feathers also, pretty, young, my age, and full of energy. After introducing myself we headed to her vehicle parked in the driveway. It was a military jeep, painted purple. I climbed in, sat in the passenger seat, and a young boy about three years old popped up from the back hidden amongst the sleeping bags and back packs, and said “ hi, I’m Bobby”.That was a surprise, he was the closest I had ever been to a child. Jamie introduced me to her son, and we were off. Because it was an open jeep and with the rattles and blowing wind, it was quite hard to talk, but we managed to keep a conversation going even with Bobby in the back. After three hours we arrived in Half Moon Bay and a gas station, where J-me, (Jamie’s artistic nick name) asked me to go in the restroom to help Bobby use the toilet. “Me? I don’t know what to do” I exclaimed. “ oh, don’t worry, Bobby will tell you what he needs”. So we went in, and he sat on the toilet and did his business. When he was finished he got off the toilet and bent over, presenting me with his bum to wipe. I grabbed some toilet paper and did so. All the time he was smiling and talking, he was so cute. We washed our hands and headed back outside, with stars in my eyes. I had just fallen love with this beautiful little boy. I knew then that I wanted to be his father. We continued on to Santa Cruz and the beach, where we camped on the sand, swam and played in the waves, sat around the campfire and ate hotdogs. After Bobby fell asleep, J-me and I traded swear words, some were different than what we knew, and we tried to outdo each other with with the worst and most offensive words we could think of. It was fun. I also said British vernacular phrases that I used back in my country, that she didn’t know, and with my British a colonial accent, she was fascinated with everything I said. We had so much fun, and by morning we were really getting to know and like each other. After another day frolicking in the waves and the sand, we headed back home, where she dropped me off with our cousins, and she and Bobby went to their house in another town. We saw each other every day for the next nine days, doing and seeing different things. One night she overheard my mother, who had come with me to California on this trip but was planning to go back to Africa, talking about how I was going to stay here in California but didn’t know how to obtain a green card. J-Me offered to marry me, she was single, and would be willing to do so with no strings attached, just to help me. The next day we all travelled up to Carson City, Nevada, and went to a justice of the peace, and got married. Bobby was my ring bearer and stood next to me with his mom J-Me next to me, and when the quick official ceremony was over and I kissed the bride, he asked his mom if we were were married now. So that was how I married J-Me and Bobby and became a U.S. resident and eventually a citize. I was twenty years old and an instant dad. But J-Me was tough, we had to date for about a month before I could touch her, and the experience almost killed us. We saw each other every night after my work until 2am, I slept every minute I wasn’t working and I wasn’t with her and Bobby. And then we moved in together and started our life together as a family. Now Bobby is fourth seven, with his own teenage son of his own. He gave him my name in honor of me. J-Me and I are still in love. She is my green card wife.