Ken Fitzgerald
12-24-2013, 11:44 AM
45 years ago yesterday, the clerk of the court told me that the office was closing at noon on Christmas Eve and wouldn't open until after the New Year. My father watched as I stood in uniform and lied to her telling that I would be leaving on New Years Day for a deployment and wanted to get married before I left. She agreed to waive the 3 day waiting period if we could get the blood test done overnight. My father had to cosign as I was only age 19 and in Illinois at the time a male had to be a minimum age of 21 years old to get married without parental consent.
45 years ago today, I went to the court house with the blood test results from the hospital and the clerk gave me the license. I drove to my parents home and began making telephone calls trying to find a preacher who would marry a young US Navy sailor and his fiancée. I was supposed to pick my future wife up at 2:00 p.m. from the factory where she worked. I was still on the phone trying to find a preacher. She was still waiting when I arrived at 4:00p.m. with the news....I'd found a preacher to do the deed and we were getting married at 6:00p.m.
45 years ago today we said "I do!" We still do! ...and this morning in a brief moment in the hallway of our youngest son's home, we said we'd do it again....with the same person!
She was a young blonde divorce with 2 kids from her previous marriage. I met her on a blind date and 3 days later asked her to marry me. 9 days later I left for boot camp and 2 days after I got home from boot camp, on Christmas Eve we were married. 2 1/2 years later I adopted those 2 kids and 1 1/2 years later we had one more.
277965
Today we are in visiting in the Norfolk, VA area, with our youngest son, his lovely wife, their 3 year old twins daughters and their 17 month old son. We will also be visiting with our oldest grandson, his lovely wife and their 4 year old son.
Both our youngest son and our oldest grandson are active duty US Navy. We have one grandson on active duty in the US Army.
We have 8 grandchildren from ages 28 years to 17 months and 6 great-grandchildren.
Life has been awfully good to us!
45 years ago today, I went to the court house with the blood test results from the hospital and the clerk gave me the license. I drove to my parents home and began making telephone calls trying to find a preacher who would marry a young US Navy sailor and his fiancée. I was supposed to pick my future wife up at 2:00 p.m. from the factory where she worked. I was still on the phone trying to find a preacher. She was still waiting when I arrived at 4:00p.m. with the news....I'd found a preacher to do the deed and we were getting married at 6:00p.m.
45 years ago today we said "I do!" We still do! ...and this morning in a brief moment in the hallway of our youngest son's home, we said we'd do it again....with the same person!
She was a young blonde divorce with 2 kids from her previous marriage. I met her on a blind date and 3 days later asked her to marry me. 9 days later I left for boot camp and 2 days after I got home from boot camp, on Christmas Eve we were married. 2 1/2 years later I adopted those 2 kids and 1 1/2 years later we had one more.
277965
Today we are in visiting in the Norfolk, VA area, with our youngest son, his lovely wife, their 3 year old twins daughters and their 17 month old son. We will also be visiting with our oldest grandson, his lovely wife and their 4 year old son.
Both our youngest son and our oldest grandson are active duty US Navy. We have one grandson on active duty in the US Army.
We have 8 grandchildren from ages 28 years to 17 months and 6 great-grandchildren.
Life has been awfully good to us!