My happily ever after 50/52 (taken by a passerby after we tried to take it ourselves.)
Many people have asked me about our story. I said the week of our 25 Anniversary I would spill.
We met in a pet store for a company we both worked for in 1981. He was coming to my store, the main one, for Management training in BIRDS of all things (he is the expert lol). He was 19, I was 21. I walked in and he was waving a gloved hand inside of a Toco Toucan cage. (not good)
S~"WHAT are you doing?"
J~Don told me to do it this way"
S~ "stop".
I put my hand in the cage and showed him how to interact without getting hurt. Peeled some grapes, tossed them to the toucan and we started talking.
We were both workers and hit it off. we would don plastic garbage bags, walk inside flight cages and scrub them down togther. HandFeed a roomful of 40 baby parrots together. And talk and Laugh......he was a sweet, young kid to me with a great smile. We went horseback riding and grabbed a burger etc at lunchtime. (3 years younger at 21 was ALOT!)
He finished his training and went back south 6 hours to his hometown to work at the local store. We saw each other at mangement meetings, talked about work during business calls, I did visit his home town once, that was it. We both were dating someone during this time.
Fast forward 4 years. Jan 1985 he decided to move to "the big City" and live with his oldest sister to get settled. The family supported it. He was in a toxic relationship and they wanted to see it end. Sister encouraged him to call me. I was a manager for Service Merchandise (remember them?) He called the store I worked at.......I was shocked. I was still off and on with a musician (need I say more) my own Mr. Toxic. We started getting lunch or breakfast, birdwatching, horsebackriding, hiking...all the outdoor stuff we both enjoyed.
In April of 1985, my second story apartment I shared with a roomate caught fire from an electrical malfunction. She was a bank teller, gone from home. I worked retail and was sleeping in. My Siberian Husky, Lucas, woke me. We tried to get out but both exits were blocked by fire.Went back to my bedroom, closed the door...the smoke was horrendous) I got us both in top of a chest of drawers by the window, I opened it, pushed out the screen and was calling out for help. Some non english speaking neighbors put couch cushions on the ground for me. Lucas jumped off the dresser and was gone into the smoke filled room. Smoke was pouring out around me through the window, I burned my arm on the heat of the metal window frame.
I honestly don't remember thinking about it, but.....I jumped.
I landed on my butt, got up, STARTED WALKING (in shock I am sure) Fire rescue got there, I begged them to look for my dog, who saved me. A young firefighter went in and found him in my closet, hunkered under a pile of laundry. They say the clothes acted as a mask and kept him from perishing. My African Grey Parrot Kaylon, (a sweet heart) and Abecrombie, my roommates kitten were found inside. My tortoise did make it , but was never the same and died not long after.
My back began to hurt almost immediately. BAD. They laid me on the sidewalk, got a backboard and I was on my way to the hospital with a kind paramadic literally holding my lower back with his hand because it was just too bumpy. John arrived to take me to breakfast, saw our couch smoldering on the grass. I was already gone. he took custody of Lucas and the tortoise, called my folks, he took the animals to their house and came to the hospital.
Fast forward......I am transfered to the Spinal Cord Unit at Northwestern Hospital in Chicago. Put on a striker frame where I am rotated every two hours. Most with the extent of my injury L2, L3 Fracture are paralyzed. And the fact that I walked put me in more jeopardy.
The musician was done. He "hated hospitals" No big shocker that he was gone. But John, who worked nights, Came EVERY DAY to see me. Wash my hair with no rinse soap.....tried to get the soot out of my skin....Laid on the floor under neath me when I was turned down on the striker frame. with little to no sleep. Our first kiss was in the hospital....he says i kissed him first, I say he kissed me. I joke it was because I was hopped up on Morophine! ;) From that day on, we talked as if we would be together.
My Mom was worried it was a hospital romance and didn't want me to deal with a breakup as well as recovery after the spinal fusion surgery and a bone transplant from my own hip. John looked at her and said "I will push her in a wheechair if I have to" Happily, that wasn't the case.
After moving to Florida,we were married by a justice of the peace in December,1986. Right after we moved out of the tent we lived in for the first month and a half we lived there. And before the convalidation marriage ceremeony in June in the Catholic church...... But ahhhhh THAT..........is another story!
My happily ever after 50/52 (taken by a passerby after we tried to take it ourselves.)
Many people have asked me about our story. I said the week of our 25 Anniversary I would spill.
We met in a pet store for a company we both worked for in 1981. He was coming to my store, the main one, for Management training in BIRDS of all things (he is the expert lol). He was 19, I was 21. I walked in and he was waving a gloved hand inside of a Toco Toucan cage. (not good)
S~"WHAT are you doing?"
J~Don told me to do it this way"
S~ "stop".
I put my hand in the cage and showed him how to interact without getting hurt. Peeled some grapes, tossed them to the toucan and we started talking.
We were both workers and hit it off. we would don plastic garbage bags, walk inside flight cages and scrub them down togther. HandFeed a roomful of 40 baby parrots together. And talk and Laugh......he was a sweet, young kid to me with a great smile. We went horseback riding and grabbed a burger etc at lunchtime. (3 years younger at 21 was ALOT!)
He finished his training and went back south 6 hours to his hometown to work at the local store. We saw each other at mangement meetings, talked about work during business calls, I did visit his home town once, that was it. We both were dating someone during this time.
Fast forward 4 years. Jan 1985 he decided to move to "the big City" and live with his oldest sister to get settled. The family supported it. He was in a toxic relationship and they wanted to see it end. Sister encouraged him to call me. I was a manager for Service Merchandise (remember them?) He called the store I worked at.......I was shocked. I was still off and on with a musician (need I say more) my own Mr. Toxic. We started getting lunch or breakfast, birdwatching, horsebackriding, hiking...all the outdoor stuff we both enjoyed.
In April of 1985, my second story apartment I shared with a roomate caught fire from an electrical malfunction. She was a bank teller, gone from home. I worked retail and was sleeping in. My Siberian Husky, Lucas, woke me. We tried to get out but both exits were blocked by fire.Went back to my bedroom, closed the door...the smoke was horrendous) I got us both in top of a chest of drawers by the window, I opened it, pushed out the screen and was calling out for help. Some non english speaking neighbors put couch cushions on the ground for me. Lucas jumped off the dresser and was gone into the smoke filled room. Smoke was pouring out around me through the window, I burned my arm on the heat of the metal window frame.
I honestly don't remember thinking about it, but.....I jumped.
I landed on my butt, got up, STARTED WALKING (in shock I am sure) Fire rescue got there, I begged them to look for my dog, who saved me. A young firefighter went in and found him in my closet, hunkered under a pile of laundry. They say the clothes acted as a mask and kept him from perishing. My African Grey Parrot Kaylon, (a sweet heart) and Abecrombie, my roommates kitten were found inside. My tortoise did make it , but was never the same and died not long after.
My back began to hurt almost immediately. BAD. They laid me on the sidewalk, got a backboard and I was on my way to the hospital with a kind paramadic literally holding my lower back with his hand because it was just too bumpy. John arrived to take me to breakfast, saw our couch smoldering on the grass. I was already gone. he took custody of Lucas and the tortoise, called my folks, he took the animals to their house and came to the hospital.
Fast forward......I am transfered to the Spinal Cord Unit at Northwestern Hospital in Chicago. Put on a striker frame where I am rotated every two hours. Most with the extent of my injury L2, L3 Fracture are paralyzed. And the fact that I walked put me in more jeopardy.
The musician was done. He "hated hospitals" No big shocker that he was gone. But John, who worked nights, Came EVERY DAY to see me. Wash my hair with no rinse soap.....tried to get the soot out of my skin....Laid on the floor under neath me when I was turned down on the striker frame. with little to no sleep. Our first kiss was in the hospital....he says i kissed him first, I say he kissed me. I joke it was because I was hopped up on Morophine! ;) From that day on, we talked as if we would be together.
My Mom was worried it was a hospital romance and didn't want me to deal with a breakup as well as recovery after the spinal fusion surgery and a bone transplant from my own hip. John looked at her and said "I will push her in a wheechair if I have to" Happily, that wasn't the case.
After moving to Florida,we were married by a justice of the peace in December,1986. Right after we moved out of the tent we lived in for the first month and a half we lived there. And before the convalidation marriage ceremeony in June in the Catholic church...... But ahhhhh THAT..........is another story!