so, how did you finally meet your wife?”

And you say, “OK, we now know how you met your mother-in-law, so how did you finally meet your wife?”

After my mother in law came home, and she spoke with her daughter later that day, she said she had met an interesting man (me) and I would be a good possibility for her daughter, who I had never met. My now wife assured her I was too old for her. All was forgotten.

A few weeks later we had an opening party, where we had the 12 artists signing calendars (100 signed ones to sell for $100 instead of $15 for a regular one) and a good time was had by all. There was music and food and alcohol and it was good. I brought a date that enjoyed herself, and at the end of the evening I was talking to some people when the crowd seemed to disperse, much like Moses parting the Red Sea, and people were being flung far and wide as this woman came barreling through the crowd towards me. She reached over several people fleeing for their lives and shook my hand, explaining that she was the art director for this project and it was her mother who had sat and waited for my mattress. I told her how nice it was to meet her and she left with her girlfriends, and as I looked into her eyes I felt an immediate connection, which my date did not feel.

I called our mutual friend Edee, and asked about her. First, I needed to know how old she was and what did she do and asked for any information she could give me. I had an unwritten rule that I never went out with women who were younger than my oldest son. I just wanted to make sure she fit that profile and she did as she is eight years older than my son. I found out she was a full time art director and that she had been married before. This was all good information. And lastly, I wanted her phone number which I got.

At this point we all begin to act as if we are in the seventh grade. Our friend calls the woman to tell her I’m interested and assure her I will be calling. I put the number away so I can call her later on as I still had my date with me for a while, and “any port in a storm……”

My date (and wife) to be was getting worried because I hadn’t called and I had almost forgot about it but it looked to me that I had to get out of my current relationship anyway so I better call as soon as I had a space. My date to be was concerned and was calling our friend Edee to see what had happened to me, which was, of course, nothing.

I finally did call her and we made a date for dinner the following week. I went to her apartment and she lived in a lovely place, the first date I probably had who lived alone in a place not looking like a college dorm room. I dressed for dinner and had on a tie in those days and a sport coat, and we had a glass of wine at her place in chilled glasses (I was impressed) and we went to El Zocalo in the Mexican area of Detroit.

The story continues for the next 25 years, but a highlight of that evening was that 20 years later, at about the same time of year, we drove to Detroit and went to the same restaurant with both of our girls. They loved the place and the food and often ask to go back. It’s a bit hard for a one day event, as it takes about four hours each way, but we have done it before.