After court, I went back to Wavery to speak with Gary. I asked him why he got the car. He was angry and said because you did not come home. I told him you knew I was going to speak with him. He agreed he knew but not for all night. I told him Tom and I did not do anything because we did not. I did not tell him I was in Tom’s arms all night. We worked through that conversation and things were back to going along nicely.
SEE ALL PRIOR PARTS HERE⤵︎
We set a date to be married at The Little Brown Church in Nashua, Iowa. We had mailed the wedding invitations out! This was Gary’s first marriage. So, we went way out on the wedding again. I wore a white wedding gown. Now, I know you’re not supposed to wear white with a second marriage, but I did not care. We had been living together for about 3 months when we got married. I was around twenty-three at the time. Tom and I had managed to stay married for five years in total. My friend Mona was to be the bridesmaid.
On the day of the wedding, I started getting cold feet. I knew this was a big mistake. Gary and I should have just been good friends. I did not love Gary in the way I should be getting married to him. It was too late Gary, and I were already on our way to the church with all those friends and relatives. The little church was packed to the standing room only, I went up onto the stage when I said my vows, I lied, crossed my fingers, and said a silent prayer to God to forgive me! Before I knew it, the pastor said, you may now kiss the bride! Everyone cheered us on as we kissed on the lips. We did not French kiss. After the reception, everyone went home except my friend and her boyfriend, and my brother Bobby, Mona, and her boyfriend came to the house to visit, the next thing I knew her boyfriend pulled out a bunch of cocaine from his pocket and started to run lines. He was a drug dealer. Now Gary didn’t do drugs, not even marijuana. It was late and Gary went to bed. Keep in mind this was our wedding night and I was up all night partying with my brother and my maid of honor. Not a good start to our marriage.
Gary and I were together for about three months and things just weren’t working out. I met a guy in the restaurant, and he asked me to have a drink with him. So, I thought what the heck it’s just a drink. Well one drink led to another and another and yes you guessed it I went back to his Motel room, and we had sex. I never went home that night. Thinking back on it now I realize I was no better than Tom with my behavior. Bob had charisma, about him, and I was attracted to him, and it was the first time I got some pleasure from sex, and I liked it. I went home and told Gary I needed the time to think. Does that sound familiar? Gary got up the next morning, went to his attorneys, filed for divorce, and asked me to sign a piece of paper stating I didn’t want anything. But I did want to keep the Oldsmobile. I didn’t have a car.
So, I found a small apartment. It was a garage converted into a small apartment. And the rent was cheap. I started seeing Bob would regularly travel around doing roofs when he was in town, he would stay with me. The divorce with Gary took three months to complete. So, it was a total of about nine months we were together. I was seeing Bob for about three months when we decided we would move in together. My dad had bought a Trailor in Waverly, so we rented it from him with the option to buy. Things were going well with us, and we started talking about marriage.
Now I don’t know what I was thinking back then either. I was in love with the idea of being married or I felt the only way I knew a man loved me is if they were willing to marry me. Bob was an alcoholic. I was drinking right along with him. He started being abusive when he drank and took it out on me. One night we went out to eat at the bars. We were sitting on the bar stools. Now he was very jealous and accused me of looking at someone at the end of the counter. I wasn’t, but he thought I was. He became incredibly angry and grabbed me by my shirt and pulled me off the bar stool tearing my shirt and knocking my glasses off.
He then grabbed me, pulling me out the door, he had me on the ground and started kicking me and hollering “If you’re a woman you’ll get up!” I couldn’t get up because he kept kicking me. Someone called the police officers, so Bob quit kicking me. He then went over to my car and dumped his leftover food all over my car seat. The Police came and told me they had a safe place I could go. I told them no; I was going to a friend Sue’s house. I didn’t press any charges on him. I just wanted him to leave had I made another terrible choice.
To be continued …
