So if you are from Dallas and Rich is from Chicago, how did you meet?

This is one of the most common questions we receive. Usually I think, surely they have heard the story. Are there still people left who don't know? Sometimes it is people who have known us for years. The easiest response, believe it or not, is that my best friend married his best friend. He was the Best Man and I was in charge of all the music for the wedding. We first met in late 1970.   

The LONG story starts out with the statement that I used to be a nun. The person across from me usually raises an eyebrow and I immediately respond, "thank you". No one ever says, “You know, I was thinking that maybe…”. Nope that doesn’t happen. It’s similar to when I first tried to get a job in Chicago after I left the Order. The interviewer could not figure out why I had never had a job before I was 21. Also, my resume had a huge lapse in time. Once they learned I had been a nun (which I only told them as a last resort) the interview for the job ended. The interview changed to either “why did you leave” or “why did you enter”.

But back to the encounter ~ our friends who were going to be married introduced us. They thought we would be a good match. I doubt Rich looked at me and saw a prospective date. I was pretty emaciated and a psychological mess. The nuns had done their number on my self-esteem and I was new to the world of equal adults. It was a couple of months before we went on a date alone. Rich took me to see the movie Love Story. I had read the book and liked it. The movie was kind of dumb – a lot to do with the casting of Ali McGraw and Ryan O’Neal. What I most remember was standing outside the Chicago Theater on State Street in a mini-skirt, in January smoking a cigarette. It was freezing that night. That was the beginning of our relationship.  

By the time our friends married in April, we were an item. That was 1971. By December that year, Rich asked me to marry him. I was thrilled and he had even figured out the date, June 8^th. Ok by me. But he meant of 1973. I was disappointed. But we immediately opened a joint savings account. Every paycheck Rich put in $25.00 and I put in $15.00.  We saved until we had enough to pay for the wedding and then broke then news to his family and our friends. Oh yeah, Rich didn’t want us to tell anyone till we had enough to pay for it.  I skipped a little part of the story by how I ended up in Chicago so let’s back track a bit.   

In 1963 at the age of 14, I and 8 other girls from Dallas and Irving rode on a school bus with 6 nuns to the Mother House located in Des Plaines, Illinois. The story of my life there will have to be separate. I remained with the Order until August 1970. In January of 1970 I was transferred to Ft. Worth to teach 6th,7th, and 8^th Grade Social Studies, 7^th grade religion and 8^th grade Art. I had not completed my degree but that doesn’t matter in Catholic Schools. This put me only 30 miles from home and made the decision to leave easier. Easier for me, yes; but for my family, no. My mother took it hard as a convert to the Catholic faith. It was an embarrassment to my family. They still loved me, but it was hard to deal with in the public eye. Unbeknownst to me, my mother was treated shabbily by the nuns once I left and my sister was terrorized at school by the nuns. All of that for a different blog.

After leaving the Order in August 1970 and returning home, the relationship with my mother reached a breaking point. I did not handle things well. I wasn’t upfront with her about what had gone on all those years in the convent (again, different blog) and why my leaving wasn’t as sudden as it seemed. She felt like her daughter had walked out on a marriage without making an effort. So I did the only stupid thing I could think of, I sold my books back to the college, took the money, hopped on a plane to Chicago to where my friend lived. She and her family let me stay with them for three weeks. I got a job but after four months found a better one where I worked the next seven years.

Rich and I were/are a good match and now we have been married over 40 years. Time flies. We have had a wonderful adventure and are blessed with a family that is A+.

I am often asked if I would do it again – meaning the convent. Without hesitation,YES! It wasn’t the life for me but had I never gone, I doubt Rich and I would crossed paths, let alone marry. That would be sad to think of a world without the particular children and grandchildren we have. You just never know.