Newlywed Love (#4)

Posted on May 27, 2017 by Margaret

December 4, 1969

On the Thursday after our wedding, Nate and I woke to the ringing of an alarm clock — our official call-back into “regular life.” But waking up with a husband lying next to me was indeed something special. The charm of that hadn’t diminished at all…. but then again, we’d only had five such mornings.

“Hello, my husband!” I said, enamored with the sound of that.

His response was, “I love you, Meg.”

We extracted ourselves from the swoopy center of the Murphy bed, and Nate made coffee in our little percolator while I showered. But making coffee didn’t take long, and before I finished, he was peeking around the shower curtain, hoping to be invited in… which he was.

In an hour I was riding in Judy’s car on the way to Danville with her and Linda, mentally working hard to switch gears from bride to teacher. I couldn’t recall what I’d been teaching them when I left and was nervous about jumping right in. A sub had taken my place for 3 days, and I had no idea where the children were in their studies.

But I needn’t have worried. While I was reacquainting myself with my lesson plan book, “my” children began running in, excited that I was back. Each wanted a personal hug, and their affection was exactly the encouragement I needed.

Once they were all at their desks and we’d said the Pledge of Allegiance, I began happily sharing the details of our wedding. But what they really wanted was to tell me what had happened in their lives while I’d been gone.

Many had gifts for me – drawings of turkeys, family members, and me. Together we hung them in a row across the blackboard, and I reminded them of my new name.

“But you’re Miss Johnson,” several said, with furrowed brows.

Lowering my voice to a whisper, I leaned toward them and said, “Let me tell you a little secret. I’m having trouble remembering my new name. I’ve been Miss Johnson for 24 years and have only had my new name for 5 days.” I held up 5 fingers, continuing to whisper. “I’m going to ask you for a big favor. Would you help me remember my new name?” None of them said a word.

Throughout that first day, I purposely referred to myself as Miss Johnson a number of times, and sure enough. They jumped all over me. “Not anymore! You’re Mrs. Nyman now!” Before long they were competing to see who could correct me first — and that’s all it took.

As we got closer to the 3:00 bell, my thoughts turned toward our apartment, hoping Nate would be there when I got home. Being separated from him had seemed unnatural after 7 days of togetherness.

Once our carpool had driven the 40 miles back to Champaign, I raced up the stairs and there he was, throwing the door open. He spread his arms wide, and I joyfully ran right in.

His day of classes hadn’t passed as easily as my first day. He’d missed a great deal, and law school moves at a fast clip with massive reading assignments every day. He knew it would take a while to catch up and get on top of it again.

To this point in his studies he hadn’t missed a single class, so it was hard to deal with the fallout of having missed so many. My role in all of it, though, was a very nice one — to do everything I could to ease his stress.

“When we run into problems…. we know that they help us develop endurance.” (Romans 5:3)

Newlywed Love (#3)

Posted on May 25, 2017 by Margaret

December 3, 1969

All too soon our honeymoon was over, and it was time to leave The Drake. We packed up, then stood together and looked around our room, promising never to forget all the happiness we’d known during our brief stay. The bell boy came to help us out, and I left the hotel just as I’d entered, carrying the giant bundle of my rolled up wedding gown and veil with the crown on top.

Nate went to retrieve his VW from the underground garage where it had been hiding for a week, and we loaded up. On a lark we decided to drive north to Wilmette before heading south to our apartment. Mom and Dad would be at Wednesday night prayer meeting, and we wanted to leave a surprise.

As we came in the kitchen door, I saw Mom’s diary open on the table with a note revealing how truly draining our wedding prep had been for her. On Sunday, the day after, she’d written, “Wondered if I could get thru Sunday – was bushed! Brot flowers home – some to ill folk.”

Even in her depleted condition, she’d taken time to divide the wedding flowers and drive them to various nursing homes, passing out bouquets to shut-ins.

Mom rallied quickly after that. On Monday she’d written, “All the pressures are gone! And now Christmas music descends!”

I had no trouble picturing her making multiple trips to the airport to deposit out-of-town relatives but then heading home to her 33 rpm Christmas records cranked on high volume – Lawrence Welk and Mitch Miller.

Glad to see all was well on the home front, Nate and I took a minute to spread my wedding gown and veil (with crown) on their freshly-carpeted living room floor. Tucking our thank you letters into my white shoes, we placed them neatly at the bottom alongside our gifts for them – then joyfully pointed our car toward Champaign.

When we got there it was late, but we bounded up to our 3^rd floor “nest” like a couple of teenagers, anxious to get going on real married life. Nate carried me across the threshold, and then we readied for sleep. Though we didn’t yet have a bedroom set, it didn’t matter. We could spend the night together on the Murphy with no fear of “getting caught” doing something we shouldn’t.

Sitting on the edge of the pull-down bed, Nate wrapped his arms around me, and we talked about all that had happened in the week since we’d left our apartment. “Why don’t we pray?” he said. After voicing a long list of blessings, he thanked God for each one…. and spent several extra minutes thanking God for me.

And then we turned out the light.

“Let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.” (Hebrews 13:15)

Newlywed Love (#2)

Posted on May 25, 2017 by Margaret

December 2, 1969

Nate’s and my honeymoon was short but very sweet. We packed lots into our 4 days at The Drake and made good use of a Super 8 movie camera Mary and Bervin had given us as a wedding gift.

We walked along the frozen beaches of Lake Michigan just outside the hotel doors, and I took footage of Nate, then he took footage of me – a bit boring for others to watch some day, but ever-meaningful to us. Of course in 1969 we didn’t get to see what we’d recorded until a couple of weeks later after the 50 feet of film had been developed at a camera store.

One day into our honeymoon, we presented each other with our wedding gifts. Because of Nate’s passion for history (his college major), I bought an antique I knew he’d appreciate: a pewter mug made in 1820 that had been used by several members of a British royal family. His gift for me was a string of beautiful pearls. “After all,” he said, “Margaret means ‘pearl.’ ”

Although I’d bought only the one gift for Nate, he had many gifts for me, which he distributed through- out the 4 days. The first was a jar of clear, pink bath beads, along with an invitation to share a bath in the big, deep Drake tub. Toward the end of our honey- moon I wrote in my journal, “I’ve never been so clean in my life!”

As we spent time learning to be physically together, both of us discovered a sweet surprise, one more of God’s special blessings. When we were being intimate, we experienced a closeness of hearts and emotions we hadn’t expected, feelings we hadn’t known while dating, despite lots of kissing and hugging.

This was something on a higher level, precious beyond measure. And afterwards, with our arms still around each other, we agreed that the whispered words spoken in those moments were new, relationship-nourishing moments.

The brevity of our honeymoon made us appreciate each hour, but reading daily newspapers reminded us of the chaotic world going on apart from our blissful life at The Drake. The Vietnam War was escalating, and after reading an article about rapidly increasing ground troops there, Nate sadly mentioned he knew several friends who would have to go now.

As we counted blessings on the last night of our honeymoon, snow began swirling outside the window, and we knew “regular” life was just around the corner – 1^st grade teaching for me and law classes for Nate. So we went out shopping one last time to buy gifts for Mary, Bervin, Mom, Dad, and Aunt Agnes. Stopping for snacks on the way back to the hotel, we laughed to see that even our Coke straws were helping us celebrate to the very end.