Promises Kept - 2nd Excuse - New Step-Mom

A little over a year after my mother passed away, my father began dating again. His first attempt was to visit the senior center in his town. He called me after and said he was never going back there. I asked him why. He said those old women are nuts. He went on to relate that he was the only male there and therefore EVERY single woman came up to him and gave him their phone numbers. He said they were crawling all over him. I giggled and he said it wasn't funny. He was even asked questions from the women if he could still get it up and how long could he last and if he liked going down on women. It was a riot listening to him. As a daughter I didn't want to know how he answered those questions although I have to tell you I was super curious :)

So his next venture was online dating spots but he said even the Christian sites were full of women who were only out there for sex and how much money he had. So he continued his life dating here and there but never the same person for long.

He does a lot with his church. He delivers communion to shut-ins, visits parishioners in the hospital, etc. He belongs to the senior group through the church. One day there was a planned outing and a woman my father knew stated she would not be able to go since she had been planning to have her car worked on that day. My father volunteered to drive her. Now here is where the story gets really interesting. His version: I drove her there and we sat together. We found that we had a lot in common and after the function he escorted her to her door and went in for a cup of coffee and before he knew it, it was the middle of the morning. Then there were giggles. Her version: He picked me up and we talked and found out we couldn't stop talking. Lots of giggles.

My father called me and asked me what I thought about him taking her out on a real date and not church related activities. He wanted to take her to his favorite restaurant but didn't feel quite right since it was my mother's favorite restaurant too. I told him to go with his gut and ask her and explain what he just told me and see if that was a problem for her. He called me back the next day and said that the restaurant was this woman and her deceased husband's favorite restaurant too. So out they went!

My first introduction to my new step-mom was at Thanksgiving in 2011. They were like teenagers. They couldn't stop touching each other and their smiles to each other were contagious. I was really happy. She is really different in a lot of ways from my mother but alike in others. She makes my father smile and laugh and he has become a new man, the father I had not seen for years.

In July of last year they married at a place we go for our family's reunion. She had never been a mother but now has the 6 of us plus husbands plus 28 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren. She is at times overwhelmed but just takes it in stride. They alternate living between what they term the small house which is in her name and the large house which is in my father's name. They even had new wills drawn up.

So......I have a step-mom I absolutely adore! The picture above is of all of us plus some relatives who drove up from Oklahoma and close family friends who drove down to join us in the celebration.