Mrs. Dunkin #9

This is an ongoing story I've decided to write and put on my blog every Monday.   Please excuse the errors, I'm only doing limited editing.  Constructive criticism welcome.  I wish I had a cute button on the side where the story could go but I don't know how to make a button.  Even if I did I wouldn't know how to link up the story LOL.   So if you miss a chapter, you'll have to look at my sidebar for it.  The first chapter was written on October 23, 2011 so that should at least be some help, ha.

 9

As I lay on the bed, I kept looking at my hope chest.  I may as well get up and look for the stuff for Jill.  Opening the chest, I rooted around looking for the family tree I had done years ago.  You see, Hank and I were only children so we didn’t have big families. We had cousins but we lost track of them over the years.   Here it is. I’ll put this in the locked drawer with my jewelry. 

I started looking through the chest some more and found a few empty journals.  Julie for years would buy me a journal for Christmas and tell me I should write my memories down and I never got around to doing it.  I should probably start doing that now while I can still remember things. She asked me for years if I wrote anything and I always had to tell her no.  I took out a beautiful lavender journal that had little violets on it and closed the chest.  I grabbed a pen from my purse and sat at the table with the journal. I opened it up and started to write.

*My first entry will be about Hank and me and how we came to be. We happened to join the same study group in college.  When I came into the library our eyes met and it was as they say “love at first sight”.  The next two years while in school, we saw each other as much as we could.  Since we were both from Ohio when we were on breaks we could meet each other’s families and get to know them.  When our parents came for graduation, we sprung the news that we were getting married the next day in the chapel.  They were none too pleased but that’s the way Hank and I wanted it.  I had called my best friend from home, Stella, and she and her husband came up so she could be my matron of honor.  Hank had his best friend from college stand up for him.  Our parents had given us some money for graduation and we decided to go for a few days to Niagara Falls for a little honeymoon.  To say the honeymoon was magical would be an understatement.  Back in those days, or at least how we were raised, there was no hanky panky before marriage if you know what I mean.  Enough said on that though. 

When we got back to Ohio, Hank and I rented a little bungalow.  He got an entry level job at a big corporation that he would eventually become the CEO of. I wasn’t going to start working until the fall as an English teacher at the high school.   It was so much fun decorating the house while he was at work.  We didn’t have a lot of money so I would go to Goodwill and decorate on the cheap.  I poured over recipe books and when Hank would come home from work, I would serve him my latest creation.  Sometimes I knew they were terrible but Hank would eat them without complaining. That first summer every evening, we would sit on an old swing on the back porch and have a couple of cocktails and dream about what the future would hold for us.  That’s about it for now.*

It’s 5:00 already.  I’m sure supper will be here soon.  I think I’ll go wash up.  When I came out Cheryl was leaving the room.  “Were you looking for me dear?” 

“Oh, I put your supper on the table.  I hope you’re hungry.” 

“Yes, I could eat something.”

“I’m going to be leaving pretty soon.  I’m sorry I never got to give you the tour.” 

“That’s okay, I enjoyed our conversation very much.”

“Me too.”

“I don’t have to work this weekend so I’ll see you on Monday.”

“Bye dear, and have a good weekend.”    

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