Bethany

Mark & Bethany A Love To Last A Lifetime   Ours is a long story, that takes a very long time to get to where we are now. We met and dated many years ago. Back when I was in high school. It wasn't supposed to be anything serious. I was just 17/18, I really didn't want to do more than just date and have some fun with someone. He was my date to my parents 30th wedding anniversary vow renewal party. He went to my band concerts, and showed me all around places in town I had never been.  More and more I began to realize that I had fallen in love with him. But I never let him know that. Like I said, I had no intention of being in a serious relationship, and he wasn't looking for that either. But I was just never as happy and complete as I was when I was with him. And he was never quite the same without me either. But we went out seperate ways just before I graduated high school. Not a day went by without my thinking about him. 5 years passed and I only saw him 1 or 2 times. I dated other men. I even had a son with a man who (under the right lighting) looked incredibly like Mark. (I really didn't see that until after my son was on the way, I swear. A friend pointed it out to me.) But no relationship was going to last when Mark was always in my heart. The men I dated always thought I was cheating on them, because they could tell that they were not #1 in my heart. I never did cheat, but it is true that I was always wishing that they were Mark. I always said that if he came back, I would have to leave whoever I was with, at least to see if what we had was real. I never said that about anyone else in my life, so it was really unlike me to feel this way. But life was just not really right without him. I even came close to contacting a talk show about finding my long lost love, just to see if the spark was still there. One night while I was out wandering around a discount store (my son was not yet 2, and he would not sleep unless he was moving. It was either carry him all night, drive until I ran out of gas, or push him in a shopping cart all night long. I picked the cart method) with one of my best friends. It was getting late, But we were just browsing through the toy department. I saw a Magic 8 ball and "jokingly" picked it up and asked out loud "Will Mark and I ever be together?", shook the ball and the answer was "It Is Certain". Just then my friend looked at her watch and noticed the time was 1:10am. She needed to get home so she could get up in the morning, and really so did I. So we wrapped up our little trip and headed home. When I walked in the door, I noticed that there was a message on my answering machine. A deep and familiar voice was on the message. He said his name was Mark, but my machine was less than great at recording and I was not totally sure it was "the" Mark that I wanted it to be. He said that he was hoping that this was my number. He had found it in his phone book, and never stopped thinking about me. If I was the person he thought, he would really love to reconnect and get together. I almost called him back right then. (But by this time it was after 2am and nobody deserves a call at that hour unless someone has died.)  So I anxiously waited for a more apropriate hour to come so that I could call the number he gave. You have no idea how over the top crazy I felt when I discovered it was actually him. That was a little over 15 years ago now. Our relationship was not easy. Both of us had plenty of baggage and issues to overcome before we were really ready to fully commit to one another. We almost instantly connected, but had also both been burned in the past. So it took years before we could happily even live together. He became an instant father-figure for my son, who had nothing to do with his bio-father. I always felt a connection to his daughter who was older. And after a few years the two of us were blessed with a son of our own as well. I like to call it a crazy roller coaster ride tht got us here. The only constant was that we both knew we were in love with one another, and that there was no denying it. A couple of years ago we started thinking we were ready to get married, but then money was tigher than ever, and we could not figure out how to make it happen. He didn't even want to say we were engaged until he could put a ring on my finger, so even though we would talk all the time about "when" we get married, it was always more of a dream than a reality. (Kind of like winning the lottery) I told him that I didn't care weather we had a ring or not. It would just be nice to be able to call him something other than my boyfriend after so many years. Then last year, on our 14th anniversary I told him that by our next anniversary I wanted nothing more than just the words that commited us to get married someday. The year was no easier financially, and it was starting to look like it was just never going to happen. But then things took some pretty strong turns. First my mother offered me her wedding ring. My father had passed many years ago, and she had lost weight so she could not wear it anymore anyway. So that was a HUGE step in the right direction. I was sure he would propose soon after that. Then, sadly a relative that I was very close to passed away. I was reeling from her death, and examining my life. So was Mark. My mother lives with us, and he knows that she is not in the best of health. My aunt had not been in good health for many years, and always seemed to get over whatever health scares that brought her to the brink of death in the past. So we started talking more and more about getting married. Our 15th anniversary was just around the corner, and my 20th class reunion about 2 months after that. I got up the nerve to let him know that I desperately didn't want to have to go to another social event calling him my "boyfriend". That I knew I never wanted to be with anyone else, and really just wanted to let the rest of the world know that as well. So on our anniversary we planned that he would (FINALLY) say those few little words that I had so been hoping to hear for so long. We wanted it to be memorable. He wanted to make it special for me. We planned to have a nice picnic, just the two of us. We packed the basket, got everything ready, opened the door.... and got wet as it started raining just then. We laughed seeing how this was so fitting for our relationship. Always something that makes it so we can't plan for a "perfect date". I really didn't mind, because we had it all set to eat at home just as easily. He grilled steaks, I made baked potatoes that were ready to eat whenever the meat was done cooking. I set the table, and we ate together almost like any other night, but this time sitting next to each other rather than across from one another. The kids ate away from the table to give us our little date. And for desert he proposed to me. And I have not stopped smiling since.