Wedding planning (in Chicago) was moving forward on schedule, and Nate (in Kansas) was focusing on his last two weeks of Army camp. I hadn’t seen, heard from, or even thought about my old boyfriend for a long time and considered that chapter completely closed.
But I should have known better.
July 15, 1969 – Dearest Meg. Would you like to know what I’ll be doing next week? Monday, barracks clean-up. Tuesday, bivouac set-up. Wednesday, platoon tactics. Thursday, company tactics. Friday and Saturday, tanks. The following week, which will be our last, we’ll take written tests and physical training tests and hand in our gear. THEN it will be 25 July, and I will see Meg, and she’ll see me in a parade of cadets. Just a few short days till then! Oh how I miss you!
July 15, 1969 – Dear Nate. Today was frustrating. I spent many hours at Bervin’s warehouse while he worked on my car, and then we both got caught in a terrific rainstorm. Both cars got drenched and our clothes, too. As a result, Bervin and Mary were real late to an outing with their church group. And my car wasn’t finished. Now it sounds like a tank and is running on only 7 cylinders. Bervin feels bad, but I’m thankful he’s willing to work on it at all! He’s very patient. His cousin was at the warehouse, too, and said that if I let Bervin work on more and more parts of the Corvette, it will eventually be in great shape.
July 14, 1969 – Dearest Meg, my Love. You sound very organized on the wedding dress and other planning. I’ll help you with all the decisions when I get there. I am praying about all this, and I pray for us many times each day. By the way, when do you want to have the first of our four babies?
July 13, 1969 – Dear Nate. I have something to write in this letter that will be hard for you to read, but you and I have agreed to be completely honest with each other. It concerns my old boyfriend. I can honestly say his name has not popped into my head since we last talked about him many days ago. Not once – until yesterday. All day yesterday I had a strange feeling he was going to call. I prayed many times during the day, asking God to get thoughts of him out of my head. I was nervous each time the phone rang. At 11:00 PM he hadn’t called, and I began to relax about it. I was writing a letter to my Aunt Joyce when there was a knock on our apartment door. And Nate, I just knew it was him. I believe the devil was testing me, trying to derail our plans to start a solid Christian marriage. I believe he was trying to spoil what we have. I opened the door, and it was him, standing next to one of his friends. I was so nervous that my hands began to shake. Quickly I excused myself and ran to the bathroom. Feeling completely upset, I prayed.
(To be continued…)
“Let marriage be held in honor among all.” (Hebrews 13:4)