I had no idea who I had married.  I look back and wonder if I ever figured out what he actually did for a living?  We were happy.  Well suited for each other.  Both Christians.  Both of us had good families.  He went to work.  I raised kids--and held everything together because.....  

He was gone most of the time.  Japan, Spain, Roosevelt Roads, Okinawa,  Vietnam, cross-country--getting night time, or instrument time, or just somewhere up in the stratosphere doing what he did.  I got myself to the hospital by myself for the birth of our first child.  Out of five kids, he was there for two.  I guess I thought it was normal?

When he retired from the Marines, I turned the bank, books, bills and everything over to him--and then, I told him I had had it.  It was his turn.  After two months, he asked me, “How did you do this?”  I said, “Pretty well, considering there was never enough money.”

He had asked me how much I needed to run the house and kids--and put it in a separate account.  I had told him a number.  So when he asked me how I had done it, I said that what he had asked me was “how much I needed”--which was the wrong question.  What he had put in the account was what was needed, not how much I usually got by on.  He said, “You did good.”  I said, “I know.”