Welcome to my contribution to
Mel's Show and Tell. If you missed my last few Show and Tell's you can view the first part of the story
here. And the continuation
here. This is a serious dedicated to the circumstances and coincidences that took place to tell the story of what brought my husband and I together. I apologize for the length - I promise after this series, they'll be a real Show and Tell, not a Tell and show. :o)
As I explained in the first part of this series, Marvy's dad was born in Guatemala to a fifth generation Texan and a sophisticated Guatemalan of means. They raised their children in Central America. When Marvy's father reached the age of 18 however, he decided to leave the country for the states. His dad had been kidnapped and it was a miracle that he survived. The kidnappers stole the car he was driving with him in it. They planned on killing him and keeping the vehicle when a random road block got in the way of their plan so they let him go.
His love of geology led him to The Colo.rado School of Mi.nes. While in Colorado he met and married Marvy's mother. He became a geophysicist and they raised their children in Colorado.
Now, when I was 15 years old I had just finished my freshman year of high school when we moved to Guatemala. Similarly, when Marvy was 15 his father took a job that moved them to Indonesia. So, we both have the same experience of moving to a third world country at the same time in our lives, living as expats and graduating from High School overseas.
When it became time to attend college, Marvy decided on a school in Texas. There wasn't a really great reason that he choose that school. There happen to be two girls that he was friends with that were going there, so he applied there too. But, in the end he got in and they didn't. So, while his parents were on the other side of the world he was completely by himself on his own in college. Understandably he had no sympathy for those who were from towns three hours away and were terribly homesick. At least they had a place to retreat to during short breaks in the school year. Can you imagine dropping your kid off at college and then flying 10,000 miles away? Must have been very difficult for them.
After Marvy graduated from college, he tried to find a job and just couldn't find anything. At first he just couldn't find a job befitting a "College Graduate", but eventually even finding any job became difficult. So, he decided he would go work for his grandfather in Guatemala. His grandfather owned a charter airplane business. This seemed like a wonderful plan at the time. He really thought that this was going to be so great, he'd never leave. That feeling lasted about three days. After selling off all of his stuff and going into a small debt to pay to have to transport his car there he was stuck. He reached a point where things felt hopeless. He had no friends, his family was far away and his grandparents became very difficult to deal with.
Amazingly right at that time, his dad was laid off by the company in Indonesia and quickly landed a job that took them to Guatemala. Marvy's parents moved in the fall of 1996. He was able to move in with them while working for his grandfather.
Then came December 1996. Two weeks before my 18th birthday. By this point my father had already taken off with the receptionist and had not been seen or heard from since. My mother, brother and I were struggling with everyday necessities and had a few times that the Church brought us groceries. I never let anyone know how difficult my home life was. But, I was always in Church at every Youth function. I always had a cheery disposition. I'll never forget how I smiley and peppy I was when I walked right up to Marvy to introduce myself. Apparently, Marvy tells me that when I went to shake his hand and I said my name I went up on my toes as I stated the second syllable of my last name. (my full first and last maiden name has seven syllables)
We were friends for six months before we started dating. I never had a clue that he liked me. I cherished out friendship but figured a guy who already graduated from college was not going to want anything to do with me. I was wrong. After the water park incident (explained in last show and tell) we found out that his dad was my dad's boss working together as geophysicists. In fact Marvy met my father before he met me. AND guess who was the main client of Marvy's grandfather's charter airline business? YUP you guessed it - it was the oil company. So Marvy would actually see with his own eyes when my dad was in town. (about every six to eight weeks) He would call me up and let me know so that I could try to get my father to give us a little money to help us get by. (My father made a ton of money working for the oil company and having all living expenses provided to him - but he was a deadbeat with his family) Marvy's grandfather's charter airline business also flew Uncle Julio while he was a geophysicist in the 70's and 80's. So, my uncle had met Marvy's grandfather before too.
One day Marvy tells me that he liked me more than a friend. He was careful not to scare me off for fear of ruining our friendship. I let him know I liked him too, but that I didn't want a relationship six months before leaving the country. Well, that lasted about a week!
Unfortunately, at the end of the six months, I had to leave. A family was going to let me live with them in the States so that I could go to college. It was so hard to leave. And so difficult to be dating while in two different countries. But, we wrote a ton of letters back and forth, racked up big phone bills, emailed, and faxed to stay connected. We've kept all of them in a big trunk. The letters are wrapped in brown paper tied with string.
When my grandmother passed away in August and I took on the task of scanning in decades of photos there was one that just happen to stand out. There's no obvious reason as to why this photo is so special. But, picture this... Can you think of your family's old classic car? Do you see that vehicle in a ton of old photos and think, "Wow! Do you remember that thing?" Remember all the stories you could tell about it? Well, my uncle had this green volkswagen mini bus that was very much that way. I recognized it immediately in this photo taken in 1979.
This photo was a 35mm slide, so I had to place it into a viewfinder and hold it up to the light to see, so it wasn't an easy task. I noticed the volcanoes in the background and I immediately recalled all those sunsets with that backdrop that Marvy and I used to watch from his balcony when we were dating.
Then I saw the plane.
As I am holding up this small viewfinder with the 35mm slide, I said to Marvy, "Wouldn't that be funny, if this was your grandfather's plane?!"
"What color is it?" He asked. I described the colors of a dark orange and navy. He said, "Oh, that's too bad - my grandfather's fleet were always red, white and blue."
"Yeah, I guess that would have been way too much of a coincidence. You wanna take a look anyway?"
"Sure. [short pause] Wow. That
is his plane." He knew this because he worked for his grandfather and knew those planes very well. As it turns out the photo was taken right after he bought it and before he had a chance to change the paint job.
So, hidden for thirty years in my grandmother's basement was a photo with my uncle's classic vehicle right next to my husband's grandfather's airplane. Plus - when I was there as a baby, it was his grandfather's planes that we flew, because they had a connection with the oil company Uncle Julio worked for.
Even though I grew up in Texas, and he grew up in Colorado, we both have traveled on the exact same plane within a year of each other in Guatemala. After tracing back our passport stamps we realized it was when I was six months old and when he was five.
I guess there's just no denying that we were just meant to be together.
