I moved to Waverly Iowa which was about a twenty-minute drive from Waterloo. Turns out Tom had moved there as well to be closer to his job. I started working at a restaurant called Carver’s restaurant. I worked my way up to lead server and was able to hire and fire and do the scheduling. They had a banquet room, and I did a lot of banquets as it was a guaranteed 15 percent gratuity. However, I was working so much that I started getting speed white cross and black beauties from a brother to stay awake and keep up with the work.
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But I was making enough to make it on my own now. I tried working in the bar as a bartender there it was called Friar Tucks my mother was a bartender during the days. I was scared for some reason maybe because it was mostly men in there. I met a guy by the name of Gary who was very nice he was tall and heavy a long black beard and long thin black hair with a receding forehead. Not at all a handsome man but he was as kind as a teddy bear, and I felt somehow calm and protected when he was around. I was to go in and work a Saturday by myself for the first tie and my anxiety was running high. I felt faint and flushed before I even unlocked the doors to the bar I went into the women’s bathroom and that’s all I could remember I had passed out and the owner found me on the floor in the bathroom. My mother was called, and she came to work for me. I decided I just wasn’t cut out to be a bartender and just concentrated on being a server after that incident but Gary ad I had gotten to be good friends and often after work I would go sit in the bar and visit with him.
Meanwhile, my dad lost his job at Sears and Roebuck company after 28 years not sure why, but they cheated him out of his retirement as well. He was jobless and fell into a deep depression. At the age of fifty. Gary and I were getting along so well I brought the subject up of living together and he thought it was a promising idea. So, I moved in with him. He worked at John Deer’s and had his own house and a nice truck and El Camino car to drive I had nothing.
I was looking for security and on the rebound from Tom and Gary was so nice to me a perfect gentleman. I was still married to Tom. He had a girlfriend or friends and was doing his own thing. Gary and I got closer in our relationship not physically but emotionally and when he asked me to marry, I said yes. As I said at that time I had extremely low self-esteem and was looking for some sense of security. And I thought I could keep working and go to college and get a degree after all Gary would pay the bills. Or I would even be able to help my parents out with bills as they still had my younger brother and sister living at home and I knew they were having a tough time making ends meet.
I was driving an old Oldsmobile of Gary’s to and from work and when he bought El Camino, he let me drive it. His friends all told him I just wanted after his money they didn’t believe I could care for a burly guy like Gary who looked like a lumberjack. That made me angry because the truth was yes, I was looking for security, but I fully intended to pay for my education and help my parents. So, I filed for divorce from Tom I was finally going to throw the towel in and start fresh. But when it came to the last day before the court to dissolve the marriage, I had to see Tom one more time I had to be sure. I told Gary I was going to speak with Tom, and I went to his Apartment. He knew I had filed as he was served the papers. I told him how I felt and that I still had a love for him. He held me in his arms all night and we talked in daylight I asked the ultimate question. If you can promise me, you won’t fool around on me anymore I won’t divorce you. He looked me straight in the eyes and said I’m sorry I can’t promise you that. I thanked him for being honest and I went to leave.
The Oldsmobile was gone. Gary had come in the night to get it. I went to the Waterloo Courthouse that day and appeared in court. Tom never showed up so the divorce was granted we would both keep whatever personal belongings we had. We never had any property to divide up as we were poor when together living from paycheck to paycheck. I felt a deep void in me at the time that I didn’t know if it would ever be filled, I had fought so hard for us to make it and in the end, I failed. Meanwhile, there was Gary to deal with.
To be continued…
