The Blind Date

I met my husband of 30 years on a blind date. David was 24 and a bartender at a chic Sausalito discotheque. I was 21.

As the night wore on, David repeatedly offered me tequila-laden margaritas. By closing time, I was in his arms and agreeing to join him at his swanky apartment in Sausalito for a game of cards.

The next morning, I woke to get dressed and kiss him goodbye. As I grabbed my purse to leave, he asked for my phone number and promised to call soon. Sure enough, he did. After a first date of pizza and a movie, we saw each other with more frequency. Before I knew it, our whirlwind romance had turned into a year-long engagement.

I was nervous about our future together, because having children was something I was told by a doctor would be a long shot for me. When I finally got up the nerve to break the news to him, David gave me the perfect response: “I love you too much to let something like that get in the way of us having a happy life. When we’re ready, we can adopt.” I had never considered adoption, but once he said the word, the idea made sense. We married on December 31, 1979.

After some years of settling into each other’s rhythms and finding a home in Daly City, we realized the time was right to begin our adoption search. By December 1982, our first adoption of a beautiful baby girl was finalized. Five years later, in December 1987, we happily adopted our son. Now we were a cozy family of four living in Mill Valley and looking forward to a happy future together.

My darling David proved to be a remarkable father. In addition to loving our children, he held down a full-time job while coaching soccer and baseball. Both our children admired his skills, which used positive reinforcement to achieve the competence needed to play sports. No favoritism on his watch. Everyone got equal time and fair treatment.

To top off his excellent parenting skills, David always found time to settle down whichever child was in crisis whenever I was having a meltdown after a hard day. Then he was able to offer me his undivided attention, so that I could air my grievances. Life became manageable again.

David grew a soft spot in my heart for the father I had always longed for after losing my father to a heart attack when I was only five. David became my father and hero all wrapped up in a husband.

I am grateful that I jumped in eagerly on that fateful blind date night, as I have not looked back since. Our 30 years of marriage has amounted to so much more happiness then I ever imagined possible.

Here’s to many more.