THE ONE I LET GET AWAY!

        Her name was Penny. She was a blue eyed, chestnut  blonde beauty. A little of Jane Fonda and Elisabeth Montgomery. When she walked into a room every head turned. Bright, energetic, gifted in so many ways and loving!

       We first met on a warm summer evening at a party that a couple of friends and I had put on at park in Urbandale, Iowa. It was 1976, I believe, and most guests were invited or had paid by tickets that we had sold to cover the food, drink, and entertainment. Somehow, Penny crashed and I was glad she did. 

       Our timing was not the best. From that night on, we started seeing each other on a regular basis and became very serious about one another. One issue she saw coming as an obstacle with our relationship was that I was in the process of purchasing/building a home with a good friend, Bob Merritt. 

        Her intuition was correct in that I had only been divorced for less than a year and my feelings were that it was too soon to commit again despite my very strong feelings for her. And, I wanted to experience bachelorhood for awhile as I had gotten married originally at such a young age. 

          Our last evening together was very romantic, complete with a candle lit dinner that she had prepared  at her lovely home on Douglas Avenue in northwest Des Moines, Iowa.  The following day was one of the most stressful and difficult days in my life because I knew I had to break our relationship off. 

           A few times, even after my second marriage, we met for lunch and that was all. They say timing is everything. I will never know if we would have met sooner or possibly after I had been single for a year or two longer. I'll will never know.

---originally written summer of 2011.