31 Day Writing Challenge Day 6 - My Bride

I met Cheryl Holt in 1987 while we were both attending Hillcrest Christian Fellowship, a non-denominational church in Muskogee, Oklahoma.The youth leader got up one Sunday morning and asked if anyone could help drive kids from the youth group to a Carmen concert in Tulsa, and maybe even pay for a ticket or two.

The girl I was dating at the time and I decided we could drive a couple of kids and pay their way, so we made the preparations to go to the concert.  At this time I had seen Cheryl at church, but didn't know who she was, or anything about her.

Well the day of the concert came, and we drove caravan style all the way to Tulsa.  Once we arrived at the theatre and took out seats I looked at the row behind us and sitting on the opposite end from me I saw Cheryl sitting there.  My breath was literally taken away when I saw her, and I remember thinking, "Man I wish I was sitting next to her."

A few weeks later she came into my dad's shoe store where I was working, and purchased a pair of Dexter shoes from me.  I was in heaven getting the opportunity to talk to this beautiful girl after having noticed her at the concert.  I don't remember how many days later it was, but she brought the shoes back. At first, I thought it was because she wanted to see me again, but as it turned out, the shoes she’d bought from me were defective and she needed to exchange them.

I'm not sure how long it was after this, but one night after a church event I helped her return her brother’s truck, and then when she took me back to my car, we sat and talked for several hours about Jesus, our likes, dislikes and what the future held for each of us.  I went home knowing I wanted to marry her and this was the girl for me. Afterwards I would tell people I was going to marry her, but I would ask them not to tell her because we hadn't actually discussed it yet.  

My mom says I chased her until she caught me.  I’m not exactly sure what she meant by this, but the next several months were heaven on earth for me as we dated.  I was never a morning person before meeting Cheryl, but I would be up before dawn and be at her convenience store, which opened at six in the morning, just to spend a little time with her before I had to go to work. To quote Mike Myers’s character from So I Married an Axe Murderer, “I was smitten, I was in deep smit.”

One night all of her family was getting together to have dinner at an all you can eat fish restaurant in Fayetteville, Arkansas and she asked me to go with her.  This was a big event; because it was the first time I was going to meet the family.  We arrived, met everyone and then the waitress took everyone’s order.  I was the only one who didn’t get the buffet and ordered a steak instead.  An hour later, everyone had eaten but me.  It seems the waitress had forgotten to turn in my order.

Well the Holt family wasn’t going to stand for Cheryl’s boyfriend not eating and went out of their way to make sure I got my food.  It was great sitting there with 20 – 30 people talking and watching me eat my food.  It was a great first impression with the family. 

As we drove home,Cheryl said she was too sleepy to be able to drop me at my car and then drive herself home and asked if I would take her home and spend the night.  Everything was above board, me sleeping on the couch and her in her bedroom.  But at the time I was a night owl, and going to sleep at 10:30 for me was too early,so I sat and watched television.

The TV was in her bedroom, and she was all nestled in her bed, while I sat in one of the most uncomfortable chairs I’ve ever sat in and watched Saturday Night Live.  During one of the commercials Cheryl rolled over, looked at me and said, “So, do you want to marry me or what?”  I replied, “Yeah that sounds good.”  And then she rolled back over and went to sleep.  The next day at church I told my friend Cary what had happened the night before, and asked him if he thought I was engaged, to which he replied yes with a huge grin.

Plans were put into motion and before you knew it I was standing in the church waiting for my bride to walk down the aisle, take my hand and my name.  It seemed as if it had all happened so quickly, but now here it is almost twenty-eight years later, and I still feel as if I’m the luckiest man on the planet. I’ve had the opportunity to walk a life out with a girl who means the world to me, still takes my breath away and who I can’t wait to see what the future holds for the two of us as we enter the phase of life of being empty-nesters alone together once more and eventually become grandparents.

My life is a living testament to what the Scripture which says, “He who finds a wife, finds a good thing and obtains favor with the Lord.”