The Story Of Don and I:Part 1

The year was 1995, the month was March, we were in the same Bible history class and we also ate lunch at the same time in the school cafeteria, he noticed me!  He asked others about me and I did the same thing about him.  Who can turn down a handsome red headed man who was studying to be a preacher?  Not me!  The reason I even went to Bible college was to meet and marry a soon to be preacher.    He began walking over to my table where I was eating lunch and asked me to go to the bank with him.  In my mind, I was thinking, "sure, I need a ride anyway across town because I need to get a birthday gift for my sister."  It was his first semester at Bible college and my second.  I knew the town and he did not.  I said, "yes".  We hit it off from the very beginning!  After that time, we went out again on an official date- to Lambert's: Home of the Thrown Roll and then later to Andy's Frozen Custard.  I will never forget that date.  He did not feel well but did not want to cancel for fear that he would disappoint me.  Even though the did not feel well, we still had a great time getting to know one another.

We continued to date each other the rest of the semester.  Then I went off to camp to work as a summer camp counselor and he back home.  However, just before I left for camp, I spent a week with him getting to know his family in Indiana.  This week proved to be a life changing week.  His dad had a scheduled open heart surgery.  He made it through the surgery and then we went out to eat breakfast with a pastor friend.  While eating breakfast, we get a call telling us to come immediately because his dad was not looking good.  By the time we made it to the hospital, we were called into a small room with a chaplain.  We knew something was majorly wrong.  Then the chaplain told us something no one wanted to hear.  Don's dad had died during recovery.  He bled out.  The tears started flowing from everyone and everyone was in total shock.  I drove the family home that day and then they began planning his funeral.  My job was getting ready to start for the summer and I needed to fly out to get there on time.  So, Don drove me to the airport and said his goodbyes to me and then headed back home to help his mom and plan his Dad's funeral.  I wanted to be there for him in his pain...