Page 51 - February Sun Rays

DON & CAROL BOWEN Don and Carol Bowen purpose attendant, bearing both flowers
SUN CITY SET UP and rings. Thanks to our cherished Sun
said, “Eden, I’d like you to meet my friend, City friends and their encouragement,
Recently widowed, I was grateful when Don,” and in a tiny voice, she said, “Hello!” I am living every day in happiness and
a nice couple across the street invited I think he was totally charmed by her that gratitude for this wonderful marriage!
me to their house for dinner. I put on my day. When Don and I were married on
L.L.Bean shoes and joined them for pot October 10, 2010, Eden served as our all-
roast. Upon arrival I saw another neighbor
had been invited - a single man whom I’d
once met at the mailbox. He mentioned
that his L.L.Bean shoes were perfect
for the weather we were having. When I
showed him my shoes, we laughed at the
coincidence and went on to talk all evening
over a delicious pot roast. I had a feeling
that we might become very compatible
friends – and a suspicion that our mutual
neighbors might have fixed us up! A month
later, my 2-year-old granddaughter was
visiting me when we ran into my new
friend while getting the mail. Holding her
hand as we prepared to cross the street, I

Noraine and James Eberlin Earlene and Mike Knight while on leave. Since I was spending time
in the area anyway, I thought why not go
JAMES & NORAINE EBERLIN MIKE & EARLENE KNIGHT for a visit and see what happens. One
CLINICAL CONNECTION SOMETHING PULLED HIM HOME afternoon without any notice I showed
up on her doorstep. There she was,
My best friend was recovering from After three years in the service I was sitting on the couch with her long-time
surgery at the University of Chicago discharged from the army at Fort boyfriend. When her mother asked me to
Hospital and Noraine was one of his Lewis, Washington in 1969. I took a job stay for supper, I just couldn’t turn down
nurses. I had no significant other so my in a shop located in Milwaukee, Oregon southern fried chicken. It turned out that
friend, looking out for me, asked for her owned by a close friend’s father, but after the girl’s mother told her to send me the
phone number. At the time I was clerking about a year I began missing my home announcement. Two weeks after that
for a Chicago firm and had a back room/ state of Texas. One morning I woke up, first sort-of date, the girl and I were
Xerox room all to myself, so I started packed all my possessions into the back of married by a justice of the peace. Call
calling this young woman at various times my canary yellow Ford Maverick and hit it fate, divine intervention or whatever,
during the day. Nobody ever answered; her the road. After arriving home, my mother but something pulled me back home
phone just rang and rang. I continued my said she had a letter for me. I opened it, that week and I have never regretted
quest upon returning home at night, but and there was a high school graduation my decision.
no one ever answered. One day, I got brave announcement from a girl that lived in
and decided to call the nurses’ station on a coastal town near our beach home on FEBRUARY 2017 SUNRAYS | 49
the floor where my friend had been and the Texas coast. I remembered meeting
finally reached Noraine. Turns out the her and her mother a couple of years back
reason I was unable to reach her was
that she had moved out of her apartment
a few days after giving my friend the phone
number. My perseverance and ingenuity
paid off, as we are still happily married
35 years later.

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