50th Anniversary - Kathleen’s Thoughts 9/5/2015

I recently went through the photos of our 50th anniversary and created a video of the celebration and party. (September 5, 2015. Most photos by Heather Taylor) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeuEBcKPNXg 

I also found the audio recording of the ceremony. I have now transcribed each of our speeches. I'll share the last one with you next week.

My dearest friend, Kathleen Murphy Stewart, was my maid-of-honor when we were married in September of 1965. She loathed speaking in public, but she made an exception for the occasion of the celebration of our 50^th anniversary. Her husband said she practiced for two days ahead of the ceremony. She did a good job. It was wonderful hearing her voice again when we listened to the recording. We lost her a few weeks ago, and I miss her.

Chapter 1

There is a thief among us. This thief has stolen from each of us, all of us, has stolen the same thing, the same exact amount from each of us. But this thief is known to all of us, and all too frequently, never missing a visit and never missing an opportunity to steal.

No, this is not one of Lorna and Larry’s novels. As true yesterday, today, and tomorrow, the name of that thief is time. Time steals from all of us. Time steals many things, but it can never steal the most important things. Time cannot steal our friendships. Time cannot steal our memories, locked in our hearts.

Try as it might, time leaves friendship and memories untouched because these alone rest in our hearts and stay with us, despite the ravages of time.

Lorna and I have been friends for three-score-and-seven years. We share our friendship and many memories, and the thief cannot break in and steal them from us. Our shared memories stand as the foundation of our relationship.

Chapter 2

There was blood. The blood will flow. The blood was shed. The blood will incriminate. The blood will not be washed away. Perry Mason can’t make blood disappear. Columbo will find it. Sherlock Holmes will deduce it. Sam Spade will slip on it. But the blood will not be stolen from the thief of time.

This is not another novel in progress, believe me. But Lorna and I were the best of the best of friends, living two houses apart growing up from before kindergarten and into college.

One time, we really did draw blood. We obtained a sewing needle and stuck ourselves. We mixed our blood. At once we were thrilled because we became blood sisters. True sisters at last. We’d always been sisters in our hearts, but now, we were truly sisters.

Back: Eileen, Karen, Dennis, Kathy, Lorna, Suzanne, David, Diane, Kathleen

Front: Ron, Jan, John

Chapter 3

Lorna and I were together through all seasons. We did what best friends do: we rode bikes, roller-skated, played Monopoly, and had a good time all year ‘round. Especially here in California where the weather is so nice.

Chapter 4

The eternal triangle was based on many stories, was written about in many books, and was the basis of many movies. Lorna, Larry, and I were sort of a triangle. But not the one you think.

Larry and I went from kindergarten through high school together. At our high school graduation, Larry comforted me by holding my hand as I tearfully wished those days would not end.

More recently, he kept my chair from sliding down the slope at my mother’s graveside service.

Chapter 5

You’ve already heard how I got them got together at the football game.

A half century ago, I was their maid of honor. After the wedding, I used all my athletic skills and jumped as high as I could for the bridal bouquet. I was pretty athletic, but I still missed it. But perhaps I caught Lorna and Larry’s wishes for me because just two weeks later, I was engaged. And the next year, I was married with Lorna serving as my matron-of honor.

Sherry Ellen Van Clief (Cowell), Patty Hair, Claudia Sue McGee (Gates), Kathleen, Lorna

My husband is here, and we just celebrated our forty-ninth. Our fiftieth is coming up. Thank the Lord.

To bring these remarks to a close and bring you up to date, I must relate that during most of my life, I have been only an occasional reader. I read their first effort, 31 Months in Japan. But then I read The Memory Keeper, and now I have read all of their published books. This activity has made me a voracious reader. I have read more in this last year than I did in previous years. My Kindle, which is packed with books, is never far from me.

So, now I give thanks, not only for the friendship and memories of my true sis, Lorna, and longtime and all-around buddy, Larry, but their gift of adding the value of dimension to my life.

September 5, 2015 Bill, Larry, Kathleen, Lorna

50th Anniversary Celebration - Lorna’s Thoughts 9/5/2015

I recently went through the photos of our 50th anniversary and created a video of the celebration and party. (September 5, 2015. Most photos by Heather Taylor)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeuEBcKPNXg 

I also found the audio recording of the ceremony. I have now transcribed each of our speeches, and I'll share them with you for the next three weeks. Here is mine. Larry's was last week.

It was a gift to marry into Larry’s family. It truly was. They knew how to do love, and they demonstrated it freely. Like he said, there was never an outsider—ever.

He’s not the only one with a history of long marriage. Today with us, are my aunt and uncle, Evelyn and Frank George. My aunt is my mother’s youngest sister. Two weeks ago, they celebrated their seventy-second wedding anniversary. So, I had some really good modeling, too.

Frank & Evelyn – 75^th Anniversary

About the time I was thirteen, Aunt Evie and I went from niece and aunt to good friends, and she is one of my favorite playmates. We have always had the best time with them.

When I was going through our wedding book a week or so ago, I found this really terrible poem. And I have to apologize. It I got it in a contest today, I’d throw it out. But it was there, and it’s what I wrote when I was eighteen. So please forgive me, but I thought it was fun to find it, so here it is.

Two young people at Alhambra High,

He was a junior. A freshman was I.

We dated awhile, and then no more.

I thought we were parted forever, for sure.

But two years later, by accident,

It seemed as though we were heaven-sent,

We met one day at the Miracle Mart,

And on February thirteenth, our romance had its start.

A ring on the phone

For a Valentine’s dance

At Cal Poly School,

And my answer was, “Yes.”

Now just two years later,

His ring I am wearing,

And after September,

His life I’ll be sharing.

This was from July of 1965.

About a week ago I heard from my—I won’t say “oldest” but “longest”―friend. (I’ve known Kathleen since I was two. She was my maid of honor.) She asked, “How did that sequence of stuff go when you met? She was there for all of it, but it was hard to keep it in order. So, I wrote it down for her, and I thought maybe some of you would be interested. So, here it is.

Larry and I saw one another and knew who the other was at Marguerita Elementary School. He used to deliver Avon on his bicycle for his mother, Letha, so my mother knew him, too. She was in love with him from the time he was a little boy and stayed in love with him until the day she died.

The summer before I started Alhambra High School, we were at Crestline at Club St. Moritz at the same time. My mother formally introduced us there, but at that time, Larry had a girlfriend.

In the fall of 1960, my freshman year in high school, I went to a football game with my best friend, Kathleen. She really wanted to sit with Tom Dixon, who was a guy she was kind of going with at the time. So, we met him there since he didn’t drive. At the game, Kathleen sat next to Tom, and I sat next to her.

At halftime, Larry joined us in the stands, and he sat down next to me. My hands were really icy, so he put them in his jacket pocket and kept them warm.

I’d had a crush on him since I was about twelve, but he had no idea who I was. His mother knew I had a crush on him, but he was clueless. Now that I was fourteen, he kind of caught on. (He has admitted the Collins men are kind of clueless.) it took him a while.

We all decided we’d go out for cokes after the game. Of course, both Kathleen and I had to call our parents. This was in the days when there were pay phones, and there was one at Moor Field where the game was held. My mother only agreed to let me go (keep in mind, I was only fourteen) because she adored Larry, and Kathleen was going to be along.

So, we went to a burger place called Yankee Doodle’s and we had cokes.

A couple of weeks later, the guys asked us to go to the drive-in to see Swiss Family Robinson. Since Tom and Kathleen sat in the backseat, I’m not sure whether they actually watched the movie or not. I can tell you those of us in the front seat did. Part of it is because Larry, by his own admission, is kind of cheap, and he didn’t want to pay for a movie he didn’t see. So, there we were.

A couple of weeks later, we all went to the San Gabriel Theater to see Cinderfella. After we dropped off Tom and Kathleen, Larry walked me to the door, and he asked if he could kiss me goodnight. Of course, I said yes.

He attended my family’s New Year’s Eve party, and when we came home, he started to kiss me, but I stopped him. That was because my grandmother was sleeping in the living room, and my grandmother was kind of an enforcer. I figured she was probably looking out the window, and I knew there would be heck to pay if she saw me kissing a boy. But he didn’t know why. I thought I’d really hurt his feelings.

I didn’t hear from him for a while, but I heard from friends he’d actually gone back to his old girlfriend. It turns out, she’d gotten sick, and he felt she needed him. It’s a pretty good recommendation for him as a person, but I wasn’t happy. In fact, it took me months to get over losing him.

Fast forward to February of 1963. Kathleen and I walked over to Crawford’s Miracle Mart, directly behind my house. It was a great store. They carried almost everything. We ran into Larry. I’d heard his girlfriend had broken up with him a few months earlier because he wasn’t exciting enough. That was good for me. I was going with someone else at the time, but we were fighting a lot, and I could see the handwriting on the wall.

Larry bought us ice cream and then drove us home. He dropped Kathleen at her house and then accepted my invitation to come in for some fresh chocolate chip cookies I’d baked earlier. See, even then I knew the way to get his interest was through food. Hasn’t changed at all.

Over tea and cookies, we talked until after dark. (My mother joined us.) When he left, I knew something important had changed.

At about nine, he called, and we talked for another hour. He finally asked me to the Valentine’s Day dance at Cal Poly, Pomona, where he was a student. I said yes, of course. Later on, he told me he’d picked up the phone several times before he actually made the call because he sensed it would be important to his future.

Valentine’s Dance 1963

During the evening, I marveled at how at ease I felt with him and how much fun I was having. The dance definitely confirmed my relationship with the other guy was over.

Two and a half years later, we were married.