(mellow guitar music)
- [Melody] Yeah, so we should talk about that.
How did we meet?
- [Marq] That's quite a story.
- Yeah.
- From my side, I was asked to go with an older gentleman
to some churches to speak with him.
And it just so happened that I went to a church
where Melody's oldest brother was going to church,
and I had known him.
So, after I was done speaking
at this church in this meeting,
he came up to me afterwards and,
"Oh hey, how you doing?"
"Oh, good."
And we chatted and talked, kind of caught up.
Then he goes, "Hey, this piece of paper
"has my sister's name on it.
"You need to ask her out." (laughs)
And at that time, I had a girlfriend.
In fact, we were probably about...
I know I was.
I don't know if she was, my ex-girlfriend,
but I was about that close to asking her to marry me
when I got this piece of paper with this name on it
that said "Melody Johnson" with a phone number.
And so, she didn't know that happened, I don't think.
- Mm-mm (negative).
My brother didn't tell me.
- No.
The exact following week,
I was back over at that same church,
and I was in the back hallway of this church,
and here comes this beautiful girl walking down the hallway
hand-in-hand with, lo and behold,
her older brother's son who I knew,
and then--
- Justin. Hey, Justin. - Yeah, Justin.
- And I'm not too quick on the uptake sometimes,
but I could put two and two together and figure out
the name on the piece of paper I had had to be her
because it was that kid's dad who gave it to me.
That must be his aunt.
So then, I fumbled all over my words
trying to introduce myself,
and that's not normal for me either,
And so, that was a good meeting and I decided,
I'm going to stay at this church for a little longer today.
So, I kind of followed her around a little bit, (laughing)
kind of hung out, and then there was some boy chasing her
and he was all over her during church. (laughing)
And so, I was like, "Hmm, I wonder where this is going."
And her older brother's wife came up to me after and said,
"No, no, no.
"Don't worry about that guy.
"He's whatever.
"You need to still ask her out."
So, later that week I called her up
on the phone to ask her out.
So, we went on a date, and I just wanted to do
something fun, so--
- What day was that?
Like, at--
- It was February 8th.
- February 8th.
- February 8th, so--
- 1990. - 1990.
- Yeah.
- Is this okay I'm telling all this?
- Yeah.
- Okay, so I pick her up, and at this time I'm driving my,
because I don't have wheels yet.
I'm kind of saving up some money.
So, I'm driving my dad's older Ford pickup,
four-wheel-drive pickup, and I wanted to take her
to kind of a quaint little restaurant,
so there was one of those that was a little restaurant
and an ice cream parlor, and we did that,
and that was kind of fun.
And then, I ask her, "Hey, do you want to... "
And I wasn't-- (laughs)
This sounds like Inspiration Point or something,
but it wasn't.
I'd been up the mountain that overlooks the city
to see the lights and just contemplate life,
and I'm 21 and thinking,
"Man, what am I going to do in life,
"and where am I going to go?"
And it was a peaceful area.
It felt good to me, so I thought,
"Man, do you want to go up the mountain
"and kind of look at the city lights?"
"Okay, sure."
So, like I say, I'd just been up there the week before,
so away we go, and about three quarters of the way up,
the weather had warmed up.
And when I was up there, it was snowy but frozen,
and now it was slushy, and not frozen,
and very muddy, and we got stuck.
So, for probably about an hour and a half...
Right?
Maybe a little more.
- Yeah, seemed like--
- It seemed like a long time.
- Eight hours. (both laugh)
- Seemed like eight hours.
So, I'm laying under the truck.
Luckily, I had a pair of coveralls behind the seat.
I'm digging the truck out with this big refillable mug
because I didn't have a shovel with me.
And so, she sat at the door of the truck in the truck but
with the window open or the door open, and we talked for...
And I found it relaxing because
we weren't looking at each other face to face,
and we were very open with each other, I think.
- Mm-hmm (affirmative)
- And we got to know each other really good (laughs)
talking for an hour and a half or two hours.
And we got to where we could kind of move
and started getting unstuck,
and then some snowmobilers were coming down the mountain,
and this is like at 11:30 at night,
and they were able to help us kind of get things
squished around, and we got turned around
and out of the predicament we were in and headed back home.
But then, I knew that we needed to go on another date.
(both laugh)
So, I kind of set it up and said,
"Hey, Valentine's Day is coming up next week,
"and I'm going to go to this dance.
"Do you want to go with me to this dance?"
And you said...
- I said, "I have a rule that I only go out with guys twice
"because I don't want a boyfriend because I'm going to move
"to New York or somewhere like that."
I had never-- - This confused me.
(both laugh)
- Well, I've never been anywhere.
I just thought that was my plan after I graduated.
I was going to go to art school somewhere,
in a big city somewhere.
And I said, "But yeah, I'll go.
"That'll be our second date."
And I think, by then, he had started telling me
about the girl he was with.
- Yeah.
And so, it kind of started feeling like
this will never go anywhere. - This ain't going anywhere.
We'll be pals.
- We can just hang out.
It'll be really fun.
- Yeah.
We went to this dance, and we were the older people there
because we were like 18 and 20,
and everybody else was like 14 and 15. (laughs)
So, that was kind of odd, so we weren't there super long,
and I don't even remember.
We went out driving, talking more, and that's--
- Yeah, we just talked and talked and talked
for hours and hours and hours.
- By then, I was kind of like,
"Hmm, I probably need to be pursuing this a little bit."
- And I was like, "Hmm, I think I might
"bend the rules for this guy."
- (laughs) So, I did.
I got another date.
Said, "Hey, let's go skiing this next weekend, and--
- You know what?
You're going to kind of sound like a cheater
because you were saying that--
- Yes, but I'm still with this other girl, but...
So, the complicated backstory is
I was out of the country for a couple years,
and this girl that had been my girlfriend
accidentally gotten pregnant, and so she was pregnant,
and I was working this out in my mind
to possibly marry her and adopt this son
because the guy was never going to be in the picture,
and so that was what was in my mind.
But I think there were higher powers
that knew maybe better for me.
I don't know.
But I think better now that I'm looking back 27 years later.
- I hope.
- Yeah.
- I hope you made the right choice. (laughs)
- Yeah, I know I made the right choice,
but so we decided to go snow skiing.
I think even then, on the way home,
I think I got another date with her too.
- Yeah, and it was all this fun stuff.
We just were just hanging out
and doing adventurous, fun things.
- So, within three weeks of meeting each other,
I was starting to think this was probably pretty serious.
And probably by four weeks is probably
about when it happened.
I told her, I said, "Look, I feel like I'm leading you on.
I'm looking for a wife,
and so I don't know where this is going, and I--
- Yeah, you were older than I was.
- Yeah, by like four years.
I still am.
- Yeah, you still...
- I accidentally...
I still say that because I was so drawn to her,
I kissed her on her couch in her parents' living room,
and that's when I was like, "Aw crap, what am I doing?"
Because my heart's going there, but we've already talked,
said, "Oh you're doing this, I'm doing this."
- "We'll just hang out and have fun."
- And then I do that, and then I'm like,
"Man, I gotta, I'm leading you on.
"I can't do this.
"I'm looking for a wife, so we gotta figure this out."
- Because I have to...
I told you I wasn't planning on getting married.
- Right? Yeah.
You're going to New York.
- So, I was 18, and I had decided
I wasn't going to get married until I was 30.
- 30, 30. Remember that number, 30.
- 30 years old,
and he was 22 and just ready to start a family.
So he said, basically broke up with me or whatever.
I mean, I don't even know what,
we didn't even know what we were to each other.
- No, it was just like, "I've got to move on."
- Like just said, "We just can't see each other anymore.
"Like, I'm falling for you, and this is going to hurt."
- Yeah.
- And so, I said, "Well, and ... "
And it just like came out of my mouth.
It just came out.
I said, "If you asked me to marry you right now,
I would say yes."
- And then, my chin hit the floor.
- And so did mine
because I was like, (Marq laughs)
we just stared at each other for a long time like,
"Did you just say that?"
"Did I just say that?"
"Did you mean that?"
"Did I mean that?"
And we just stared at each other.
- Yeah.
So then, this is big information, right?
Now, the whole going to New York thing, that got sidelined,
and now I've got to start thinking real serious,
so I did start thinking pretty serious
over the next couple of weeks,
and she took off with a friend and went to...
Where is it? You guys went to...
- Puget Sound, I think. - Puget Sound.
Yeah, you were up in-- - San Juan Islands.
- San Juan Islands.
Yeah, that was like spring break for her senior year,
and I was at home, and I was working,
and thinking, and praying.
You know, I wanted to do the right thing.
I want to have God, for me, I want to have him involved
in this big life decision for me, you know.
And so, I felt, after a lot of praying,
that yeah, that was right.
So, she got home from spring break, and on my birthday,
I went over and asked her to marry me.
And that was six weeks after our first date. (laughs)
- Yeah.
- And then, we had to wait for her to graduate.
- (laughs) Yeah.
- So, we went to senior prom, she had an engagement ring
on her finger, and I was some old geezer
that none of the high schools guys knew, and that was fun.
That was really fun.
- Yeah, that was fun.
- And then graduation,
and then soon as things were all calmed down,
we had it all planned for June 22nd, 1990.
- Yeah.
- Which was just three and a half weeks after graduation,
and we got married, and it's been a fairy tale ever since.
- Well--
- No, wait.
Life isn't that way.
If you think it's that way and you're young...
- There's always bad things that happen in fairy tales.
- Okay.
- Yeah, makes it exciting right?
- Yeah, and then you work through it.
- Yeah, it has been a fairy tale.
- Yeah, so we've had the ups, and we've had the downs,
and we've had the ups, and we've had the super-highs,
and we've had some super-lows,
and that's probably what we're going to tell you more about.
- Yeah.
- But that's how we got together,
blind date that turned into not quite a blind date,
which turned into "we're going to be pals,"
which turned into a kiss and I'll marry you if you ask me,
and six weeks and we're engaged.
- What made you want to marry me?
- Whoa.
Well, first off, I felt God had answered my prayers.
That was the rock of it, I think.
But what else?
I mean, I was attracted to you.
You're beautiful.
I didn't say were, I said are, and your were then too,
even with that perm your mom gave you.
(both laugh)
- Yeah, that was something.
- So, her family used to call her motor mouth or chatterbox,
and then her mom told her,
"I've never met anybody that can outtalk you
"and that was me."
So, we're both like pretty big personalities, right?
- Yeah, yeah.
- So, that was good.
I think--
- And had just big things we wanted to do in the world,
and wanted to try everything, and just like live it up.
- But then also, we wanted to have a family,
and that's important, and I think we had a lot of
the same values lined up, so...
- Even though we're really different too.
- Even though we're very different,
we complement each other.
- Yeah, we drive each other crazy also sometimes
- It's the plus and the minus, the yin and the yang.
Yeah, but I don't think I could be married to somebody
that had the same personality as me.
- You couldn't.
- It would be too tough, so--
- I just wanted to tell you about
when I knew I was in love with you, and I didn't know if...
I just was like I...
I don't know.
I've never met anybody like this,
and I don't know if I ever will again,
and that was, there was two times.
One time was when I saw you with kids,
with my nieces and nephews, and just like the thing
I have always noticed about you is
small children and animals always come to you in the room.
They just do.
And I watched you with the babies and with the toddlers,
and with the little kids, and I was like,
"I think I love him. (laughs)
"I think I'm in love with him."
And then, I remember one time we were at a gas station,
and I was watching you talk to some guy
that was also pumping the gas, an old guy,
and you were so kind and so good to him,
and I just thought, "This is somebody that... "
For me, you reminded me of how I think of Jesus,
and I think I told you that when you got back in the car.
I said that you remind me of the way
that I think Jesus is and would act and be.
And I just remember that,
and I think it made your eyes tear up,
but there were just so many times
when we would just have these conversations,
and I would just watch him, and I would just think,
"He's not like other guys I know
"and have met and been around."
- Just so you know, those moments might be
few and far between.
- They're not. (laughs)
He's also way too humble.
(Marq laughs)
and sometimes too cocky, too.
- Yeah, yeah. (Melody laughs)
I'll own that.
- Yeah, but it was your kindness.
It really was.
And just, you're so fun and adventurous,
and just willing to try anything,
and I couldn't stand the thought of,
even though we had only known each other for a month,
I couldn't stand the thought of not knowing you
for the rest of my life, just in that short of a time.
- And that's what we did, huh?
- What?
- Like, once I had told my other girlfriend that
that was off, it was I got off work, go to her house,
I'd be there until midnight, 1:00, go home,
go to work, come to her house.
It was every day.
Every day, it was like we couldn't be apart from each other.
- And every day, he would bring me a red rose.
- Not every day.
It's probably about three times a week, though.
- Yeah, he would bring me a red rose.
- Most days.
- Yeah, and you'd hold my ring finger.
- Yeah, that's the sign.
- And you'd squeeze it three times,
and that means I love you, and then on the day
that he asked me to marry him, he brought me a white rose.
- That's me trying to be romantic. (laughs)
- You are romantic.
You're really romantic.
It's kind of crazy that we did that so young.
- Why?
- I don't know, just to make a decision that big, but--
(Marq whispers)
I'm really glad we did.
- I'm more than glad. - Yeah.
- It's probably the smartest thing I ever did in my life.
- I still honestly feel like
you're the very best thing that ever happened to me.
- Ditto.
Ditto.
(mellow guitar music)
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