Mom and Dad get married!

I have been thinking a lot about what story or entry I should post next.  Since mom’s faith was such a huge and important part of her life which she talks about frequently in her journals, I thought it might make the most sense to begin there.  Mom was born and raised in the Catholic faith and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1964.  Mom was the only member of the church on her side of the family and I don’t know how many of you have heard the whole story and circumstances surrounding her conversion, so I’m hoping you will all find the next few blog postings  interesting and hopefully come to understand her choices a little better.
 

One day I was visiting with Mrs. Valencia who lived across the way.  Chacha called and told me to get right over there as her brother-in-law was there and she wanted me to meet him.  I was late in arriving and I missed him.  Several days later he came over to Chacha’s and I was there.  He asked me to go to the beach with him.  I told him I couldn’t, I didn’t have a suit.  Chacha pops in and says oh I have one you can use.  There I went to the beach with him.  I remember the beautiful tan he had.  He put baby oil on my back for me.  I got the worst burn that summer that I have ever had. 

From then on Bob and I started dating.  I returned home and several days later Bob returned to the base.  We started writing to each other.  Bob would come down and spend the weekend with us whenever he could.  We went together for two years before getting married.  We broke up once during that two years.  About a month after we broke up I heard from him and we decided to patch things up.  We talked about eloping. 

I remember having an argument with my father over Bob.  He told me he didn’t want him around anymore.  My dad and Bob really never did get along very well due to the fact of my dad’s drinking and his meanness.  I remember calling Bob up at the base and I was crying I was so upset.  Bob told me not to worry, everything would work out, we’d elope.  He said he wasn’t afraid of my father.  I just couldn’t elope without telling my mother.  It was finally decided we would have a church wedding. 

Despite my father’s meanness things did work out for us.  We had a lot to cope with such as my father’s family.  They made special trips up to San Jose to talk me out of marrying Bob.  They said he was a weird Mormon, they make slaves of their wives and that I should be like my Aunt Dorothy who had gone with a Mormon boy.  They had talked of marriage but neither would give up their religion so they broke up.

I loved Bob more than anything else in the world.  I just wasn’t going to let a difference in religion part us.  I knew his folks and had met other members of his family.  I found none of them strange.  They all looked and acted perfectly normal to me.  I finally became angered and told my relatives that it was I who would be marrying Bob and I would have to live with him, not them.  Therefor, I would do as I pleased.  Bob agreed to marry in the Catholic Church although he said he would never attend any of the services or ever become a member.  He also had told me any children we had would be raised Mormon or some other faith if I liked, but not Catholic.  I agreed to this because at the time I found myself questioning and disbelieving many things in the Catholic religion. 

In order to marry in the Catholic Church Bob had to take instructions which he did, plus he had to sign a statement that all children would be raised Catholic.  He signed the statement only so we could marry.

Things got underway for our wedding.  My folks bought me a lovely wedding gown and everything else I needed.  We were married on the 1^st of September 1956.  It was truly a day I’ll never forget.  Everything was just lovely.  We had a beautiful cake, the flowers were just lovely.  I don’t think things could have been any nicer.  We had rented a small house in Napa which was 25 miles from Travis Air Force Base where Bob was stationed.  He had six more months to go before being released from the service.