The Honeymoon 1993

Kelvin's sister, Michelle, came through the line to "congratulate me". She whispered in my ear," I feel sorry for you." She knew of Kelvin's temper first hand when he didn't get his way what a little 2 year old he turned into. Finally the line got shorter and for the most part everyone was happy. The crowd thinned and his father Larry gathered everyone who was in the wedding party together for pictures. He kept hurrying us along because he thought it was going to rain any minute as it had been for the last 2 1/2 months. " Hurry, before it rains." and "lets get these pictures taken , it's hot out here". Over and over he took the pictures with Kelvin and I on a Harley Davidson motorcycle that one of his friends brought per Kelvin's request, in front of the fountain, in front of the cake, which Kelvin shoved into my mouth with a little more force than I thought was needed. When all was said and done it was time to take that last walk down the paved pathway to the teal Probe to make our getaway to Letterman's. When I looked up, everyone was gone and Kelvin was giving me orders to help pick up stereo equipment. Everyone had left us. Here I was in my white wedding dress and veil with stereo speakers under each arm, trying to not to get dirty. I asked why we, the bride and groom had to do this and he said because everyone else had left. There was no one to wish us off or throw birdseed, or clap as we got into the car. After the equipment was loaded into Grant's car, we finally were on our way.
We got to Letterman's and the party was starting. We set ourselves down in the back in the corner above the dance floor. The tables were aligned together so that they made two long tables. We danced with each other and apart with friends. When we left it was midnight and the rain came in sheets, slowly at first then harder and harder until it slanted sideways. We headed home to grab our suitcases and change clothes for the trip to Branson. The rain beat steadily on the windshield while the wiper blades frantically made an attempt to whisk it away. By the time we had arrived in Kansas City, the visability was nil and we had to pull over. He had seen a vacancy sign from I29, he pulled over and got us a room in one of the shabbiest motels I'd ever seen. It was an emergency so he paid and we were led out to the parking lot to a row of doors under an awning. It was not the ideal room for a bride and groom to spend their wedding night but it was dry and it had a bed. The mattress was lumpy and had springs popping up everywhere. That was where we spent the night and the next morning we rose and headed south for Branson. It had been a long time since I had been there. I don't think Kelvin had ever been there. His mother, Wanda, and his father Larry were staying at the Cloud Nine motel at the same time. His mother's cousin Janet and her husband Grant also were coming. Michelle and her boyfriend Larry had headed back to California after the wedding.
The cabin we chose was cabin number 5. His mom and step dad chose number 9 and Grant and Janet were up the hill from them. Cabin number 5 was on the banks of Lake Tanneycomo. There were men fishing including Larry, I saw a boat called the "Queen" sailing up and down the lake with tourists standing on the upper decks waving at the tourists on the banks. I told Kelvin I wanted to go for a ride too. After we put our things away and Kelvin served me breakfast in bed of bacon and eggs, orange juice and biscuits with strawberry jam, we headed into town. There were many antique shops and gift shops downtown. The whole town had an early 1900's feel. The shop owners dressed for the part! We found our way to the edge of the lake to where the "Queen" was docked and bought our tickets. While we waited for the ride I bought a captain's hat and other souvenirs to take home. We were very happy, and Kelvin kept his cool.
On the way back to the car there was a man with a horse and buggy giving rides up and down the street along the lake shore, so we took a carriage ride and Kelvin took my picture and I his before, during and after the ride.
We visited with his mother, Wanda and his step dad, Larry. We even visited with his cousin Bill who owned the resort. There was a swimming pool, so we went swimming and lazed around until dinner time. We went to the outskirts of Branson to a super market there and bought necessities we needed. We cooked in the kitchen and ate on the deck watching the lake lap the sides of the bank, the occasional fish jumping and splashing in the distance.
The following day we went to an amusement park called , Silver Dollar City. The same park that Charles and I had spent our last 20.00 in 1977 after wrecking the car and getting food poisoning, spending several hours in the hospital etc..The place had changed considerably since then. The rides were more of the World's of Fun type with roller coasters, log rides, haunted mansions etc. The old mine ride was gone. That had always been my favorite. They still had the train with the fake train robbery and story line. When we left we headed for a 100 ft tower that Kelvin wanted to climb. I had told him in no uncertain terms that I had a fear of heights and could no way climb up and see the "scenery from up there" as he had put it. I got half way to show him I would try but froze and couldn't get back down. He rescued me and laughed at me and teased me all the way back to the cabin.
When we talked to his mother she and Larry had decided to go to a trailer sales park to buy a double wide trailer to park on property they had bought down there to retire on. They took us to show us the property where they were going to put it, where the plumbing and sewer lines were to be set up and which direction it would face. Grant, Janet and Larry and Wanda left to go get the trailer while Kelvin and I stayed home and enjoyed the rest of our honeymoon.
On Sunday afternoon we packed everything and put the suitcases in the little red Geo wagon to make the trip back to St Joseph.
　

The Wedding Continued 1993

The day came with the threat of stormy weather overhead. Dark billowing clouds threatened the sky and I prayed as I had never prayed before that the rain wouldn't come until after the ceremony. I had an appointment with the hair dresser on Lafayette street. I wanted to leave my hair down with some body and a little bounce, a curl here and there. My hair was a dark blond color. I had ordered the white tuxes from the formal shop on Frederick Ave for Kelvin, Chuck, and Madison. Vallie too, was to be in the grooms party for her dad. She was to be the ring bearer. She not only had a white tux with a teal green boutoneer but she also wore a top hat. She looked like the Mad Hatter in Allison in Wonderland. She had big blue eyes and long blond hair that had never seen a scissors since the day she was born, the day before Halloween in 1986. I had a ring bearer's pillow I had bought at Ambers for her to put the rings that Kelvin had bought me and the ring I had bought for him. My ring was a marquee diamond with small diamond chips surrounding the 3/4 carat marque in the center. The wedding band had small diamonds across the gold band in the middle. Kelvin's band matched perfectly. They had been seen and purchased at a pawn shop on the Belt Highway, Pony Express. When businesses can't think of a name for their business they usually go with The Pony Express, since that is what St Joseph is most known for, that and Jesse James who was killed here. The house he was shot in was moved from the Belt Highway to 12th and Penn St where they charge visitor's to see the hole in the wall where he had been shot in the 1880's. His picture is hanging on the wall at 11th and Charles St museum, of what he looked like in the coffin at his funeral.
My hair appointment was scheduled at 3p. I sat there and got beautified for about 2 hours. It was getting closer to the time to leave for the park. So far the clouds yielded no rain. I was at home alone trying on my dress when Mary Ann, Jenny and Floy Mae came over and exclaimed how nice I looked in my size seven white lacey gown and my veil. They helped me with the necklace which refused to stay put so that the pearl stayed in the crevass below my thyroid gland. It kept sliding cockeyed to one side no matter how hard I tried to readjust the thing. The pearl earrings went into my pierced ears without too much difficulty but threatened to irritate the holes that hadn't had earrings in them for several years. The veil went on and Jenny and Mary Ann and Floy Mae went to the park to wait with other family members. Friends from the hospital I worked with were there and sat on bleachers on the bride's side of the fountain in the hot sun, it was above 90 degrees, and family and friends of Kelvin's began to gather on the left side.
The time came, I walked out onto the deck Kelvin and his friend and neighbor had built for us, stepped gingerly down the steps and walked to the gate to get into the Ford Probe. His sister Michelle and her boyfriend Larry helped me into the back seat. I asked where Kelvin was and how he was doing, not really believing he wouldn't walk out on me and not show up.They said he was nervous too but he should be at the park in his white tuxedo, bow tie and all. I waited at the end of the walkway waiting for the music to start. I instructed Brandy, who was also dressed in a frilly teal dress to take the basket with the rose petals and start walking down the path throwing petals around for me to walk on as I made my way to the fountain. She sat down and refused to cooperate. The more we tried to make her get up and do as she was told the more stubborn she became. Jennifer tried, strangers tried, there was no way she was going to take that basket and walk with it. Pam and Madison had a little girl a little older than she was so I begged and pleaded for her to take the basket and throw the petals as the music was starting to play. She said she would be glad to do it and the procession was on its way.
Kelvin was waiting for me along with Jenny and Vallie and the minister. We stood in front of the trellis, the roses had bloomed and the fountain was shooting water up out of a fish's mouth and making loud gurgling sounds. The sky had cleared and the hot sun shone brightly in the sky. We said our vows after the minister and when he said, "you may kiss the bride" Kelvin's kiss lingered on and on until I had to pat him on the back several times to make him let go. Everyone laughed and we headed to the groom's side of the fountain, the right side now, and stood in line to wait for visitor's, family and friends to shake our hands and congratulate us on our special day. Charles was there to my surprise, and gave me a big hug and a kiss for the last time. He and Deanna had gotten divorced about three months after the wedding on the farm in a gazebo that took the place of my swimming pool. One day when Kelvin and I had been at the main post office at 8th and Edmond St, Charles was there and said that he had stayed home from work one day when his back had gone out, called into work, when Deanna woke up and saw that he was still there in bed beside her she exclaimed, "What are you doing still here?"She insisted he had to go to work. He said , " I can't, I told you my back is out and I can hardly move." She didn't care, it turned out while Charles had been at work she had been seeing a man she had met at the bar where Charles had been managing the pool games. It was obvious to me and Kelvin and anyone else who he had told the story. It finally dawned on him.
She had several children from the five previous marriages. They were all young children. Charles had wanted another child after his vasectomy he had had after Chuck was born. He loved those children as if they were his own. The youngest was 2 years old and he called Charles, Daddy. Charles had asked me for the number to the lawyer's office I had gotten off the television ad and they filled out the papers as I had. Before Kelvin and I had married he tried to persuade me to go back to him and I had kept my distance. Before I had met Bill and was at the end of my rope, I was in my little red Geo at the end of the street where I lived in Wathena. I flagged him down on 36 highway as he was going on his lunch break. I was crying and begging him to take me back, I just wanted the pain and agony of living alone, all the male suitors I had hopes of keeping around for more than an hour, to stop. I was done and just wanted to go home, back to the way things were. He just laughed and said he had to go, he wanted to go to the diner where Deanna worked in Wathena and propose. We had warned him that every man in the past that she had married, all five of them, she left for the next one that came along. He said he and she had talked that over and she swore that would never happen again. So I continued on surviving, then on April 18th 1992 I met Bill and thought I was done. It was finally over, I was in love and I'd never have to look back.

A Wedding in the Summer 1993

We started making preparations for the wedding. We had set the date for July 9th 1993. Jenny and I went to a store called Ambers beside East Hills Shopping Mall on the Belt Highway. They had all kinds of wedding supplies. We bought fake flowers for making teal green bouteneers for the guys lapels and I sorted through many flowers I would use to make a bouquet.The color scheme was white and teal. My favorite color was green, and teal was a mixture of green and blue. I had called the Parks and Recreation Dept. for the use of Civic Center Park for an outdoor wedding. It had a huge fountain in the center that would be shooting high cascades of water over a garden of beautiful roses that would be in full bloom at that time of year. There were roses all around the park and the trees in the Spring had pink and white blossoms bursting out all over them.
This way I wouldn't have to go to a florist and buy flowers however, I did gather as many rose petals as I could find from my own roses. Kelvin had gotten bags of them given to him from florists as well. The plan was to have a basket full of the rose petals and have little Brandy be the flower girl and walk behind me spreading the petals on the walkway as I made my way to the altar in front of the fountain to stand beside my husband to be. There was a white trellis behind us with climbing red roses that would be alive and blossoming and smelling up the place with their sweet perfume. It sounded so lovely.
I bought my wedding dress in the Spring at Deb's. It was prom season and they had many formal gowns awaiting the arrival of skinny teen age girls, giggling and laughing and saying, "What are you going to wear,no, what are YOU going to wear!" Here I was looking to buy a wedding dress, shaking and scared of the possibilities of my new life with someone I hardly new and what I did know gave me little comfort. I was determined to have my wedding and live the rest of my life happy and secure, knowing I'd finally done it. I'd captured a man! A younger, handsome man with blonde hair and blue eyes, whom I thought needed me and the security marriage gave us both.
The closer the date got the more frantic I became. I had chosen bride's maid dresses in a dark teal green color. They shimmered in the light. My daughter loved hers. Thankfully she paid for hers. I had asked LeeAnn to be my Maid of Honor but when she found out she would have to pay for her dress she said "no" and didn't show up for the big day. So much for best friends. I had found my wedding dress at Deb's, it had lacey sleeves and puffy lace at the shoulders . The bodice was beaded with sequins and the skirt was satin. It came to just above the knee. It was the most beautiful dress I'd ever seen. It was white. The veil I had bought at a wedding store downtown St Joseph that was owned by my previous landlady who had owned the trailer in Wathena. She sold me a beautiful long veil with netted material and a band with sequins and pearls. We put it on layaway. I found a necklace with a lone pearl hanging from the chain that settled at my throat and earrings to match.
His family was coming from Sacramento and Kelvin had invited some of his "old" friends to be there. The invitations were bought and sent out. We were to spend our honeymoon in Branson. He had a cousin Bill that owned a motel of cabins there called Cloud Nine that he said he would make us a deal on. We had asked for cash instead of presents since we already had everything we needed and didn't need a toaster or blender, we already had those things.
Kelvin's cousin, Madison's wife Pam, said she'd love to be a bride's maid and would happily pay for the dress. The wedding had cost me several thousand dollars already. I bought things a little at a time with the help of my daughter. I called a gal in Savannah about the cake. I told her I wanted a 3 tier white cake with teal green frosting. It was a beautiful thing when it came time on the day of the wedding to pick it up! It was decorated with teal green roses and leaves. I had purchased a topping for it, a garter that Kelvin would take off of my leg and throw it at the men waiting in a bunch to catch it. My bouquet that I had made for myself was white and lacey with teal green flowers in the center. Jenny showed me how to do it from a program we had watched on television and many books we had bought. She had a hot glue gun, we bought the plastic holders and after a few burns we had a marvelous bouquet and several others for the groomsmen and Jennifer and Pam. It was so much fun planning the wedding and going to stores looking for just the right thing to accent this or the other. Again I was very happy and was starting to come back to life.
Then came the rain! It rained and rained and rained all through June and areas were started to flood. It rained all week long the first week of July and they even announced in the local news station about the wedding at the park that was to take place at 7pm. We had a local dentist who worked at the church across from the park, start ringing the church bells at 6pm. It was going to be glorious! The dentist either forgot or set the timer for 6 am instead of pm, either way there were no bells. The evening of the 8th there was a continuing storm that felled a tree at the park and of course it fell across the walkway leading to the white flowery trellis where we were to take our vows. Kelvin stayed that night over at Madison's and Pam's apartment building, I thought we shouldn't see each other until the moment I met him at the makeshift "altar".
He called and told me about the tree and that he was working with the parks dept and Madison and Kyle to get it removed, cut up and out of there before 6pm. I had bought tapes of wedding songs that his cousin Grant would play in a large stereo system all around the fountain. He was in charge of the music. His sister's boyfriend Larry, had rented a teal green Ford Probe, a type of sports car. I was to ride to the park in that and at the end of the ceremony my new husband and I would walk back down that wide cement walkway with onlookers cheering and throwing birdseed. At that time there was a myth that rice caused birds to fill up and explode upon impact after eating the tasty rice grains so no one was throwing rice at weddings anymore. We would ride off into the sunset to Letterman's, a bar that was licensed for dancing, with a big dance floor and a band or DJ playing old songs from the sixties and seventies and some newer ones for the younger crowd.

A New Beginning 1993

The next two weeks were spent going to work, picking Kelvin up after work and going home to my trailer in Wathena. One evening after dropping Kelvin off at his apartment, I was sitting at the nurse's station getting ready for the evening's med pass, when a panicked Kelvin came off the elevator, stating," My apartment building burned last night and all my things are ruined!" His downstairs neighbor had been drinking and had gone to bed with a lit cigarette. The upstairs apartment above him, Kelvin's apartment, was smoke damaged. The fire had been contained in the closet where Kelvin had kept memorabilia such as pictures and letters from his mother. His clothes hanging in the closet were stained with water and the strong odor of smoke lingered on them, including his shirt he had gotten from his cousin Kyle, who had been in the Navy. Kyle had sent him a shirt from Singapore. It was a white shirt with blue Asian style designs on it and he was especially fond of that shirt. We had it cleaned and it was good as new. The firemen had gotten there quickly but deemed the apartment building uninhabitable. He had to find another place to live.
I didn't want to leave him hanging since he had no place to live, his family lived in Sacramento, California, so I told him he could live with me until he could find some place else to hang his shirt, so to speak. He thought about living with Kyle, now out of the service and settled with a new wife who was pregnant with their first child. I was hesitant in getting involved again so soon after the "fiasco" with Bill.
He never moved out and I liked having someone to come home to after work. He filled my head with tales of horror stories that were reminiscent of a Hollywood movie, action adventure. I should have listened and realized the things he was telling me were true, life experiences. I dismissed everything as I would after watching a television program, I could always turn off the set and go back to my real life and never think of it again, but this was a life he had lived.
He had a dog named Crusher. Crusher was a Pit Bull. He would only listen to Kelvin. He was a fighter and hated cats. He said he loved Pizza and would go crazy when Kelvin would show him a Pizza box. Kelvin took Crusher with him everywhere he went. One day he took Crusher outside, not having a fence around the yard and knowing his hatred for cats and other dogs, people etc, he had him tied up in the yard with a strong chain or cable. It was Summer time and in the summer in Missouri and Kansas the heat index can quickly get over 100 degrees and the humidity was thick as a blanket on a cold winter's night. It was 10:00 in the mornig when he put Crusher outside. The phone rang in the house. He ran inside to answer it. It was a buddy wanting to reminisce about the goings on of the previous night. He said he was on the phone for about 45 minutes. Off the phone, finally, he went back outside to get Crusher. It was already getting excruciatingly hot, Crusher was used to being in the house with air conditioning. He found his dog lying on the ground, barely breathing. He rushed him to the veterinarian's office. Crusher had died of heat prostration. The vet said because he was used to air conditioning, the period of exposure to the heat was more than he could bear. It was a long time before Kelvin could wrap his mind around the death of his best friend. He knew others who left their dogs outside all year round. They had gotten used to the gradual rise in temperatures or the sudden drop to below zero weather in the Winter time that the Midwest experienced. I had always kept Pebbles in the house when it was too hot or too cold. Our other dogs and cats were usually kept outside, Charles wouldn't allow them inside, but they had access to barns or sheds, trees that provided adequate shade. Kelvin lived in the city where it was hotter than the country, the heat from the buildings, pavement and cement kept the temperature at least ten degrees hotter or more.
In January of 1993 Lee ann, who lived in the trailer park by the Belt Highway, told us about the trailer in the park that was a double wide. It was very nice inside and out. There was barely a yard. It was 375.00 a month. I didn't know how I was going to pay that high of rent when the rent I was paying for the "cardboard" box I was living in was 175.00 a month, uncertain every month how I was going to come up with that. Kelvin said his disability check would start coming in March. We could use that to pay the rent and all I had to pay would be the utilities. It had central airconditioning, and a good furnace for the Winter. It was insulated and very warm.
While I was at work I got a call from Kelvin who said the move was done, and I just had to go to the new trailer when I got off work. It was so pretty. It still had the new trailer smell, new cabinets. A built in washer and dryer. No more laundromats for me!
In the Spring we bought roses and gladiolas for the scant yard. Kelvin built a fence around it for Pebbles.He spent his days planting the roses. We watched the flowers grow and bloom. A man he knew that lived in the trailer court worked for a construction company and helped Kelvin build a deck leading up to the front door. I bought a swing and he hung it on the deck for me.
In March he asked me to marry him one night, lying in the bed after love making. I questioned his sincerity of the matter due to the timing of the proposal. He said he felt as if I had saved his life the night of the apartment fire. If I hadn't taken him home to be with me, he would have been asleep in the bed. He couldn't go to bars anymore or get into any trouble due to his parole. The firemen said if he had been home he would have died of smoke inhalation. He said he loved me and didn't want to live without me ever.