Cape Cod Love Story

We met on a blind date in in Newport

They meet on a blind date during OCS in Newport, married in Waikiki, baby-sat for an Arab Princess in Riyadh and ended on Cape Cod for their fiftieth anniversary in five more months.

My wife, Ellen, and I met on a blind date. We were with different partners on a double date when I was at Officer Candidate School, Newport, RI. One of my roommates made the date for the Newport Jazz Festival in 1956. We ended up at the Viking Hotel Bar where we danced and drank. Neither of us connected with our dates, so I asked Ellen to dance and, with that, the story began.

After several weeks of training, the OCs got weekends off, so I called Ellen. She was living in Boston and working in Cambridge at the time. We went out together only about four times. After OCS, I was transferred to Jacksonville Naval Air Station for ten more weeks of training. From there, we wrote to each other every day. When I got my orders to NAS Barbers Point, Hawaii, I was given leave time, so I went back to see Ellen. Her home was in Scituate, MA at the time and I remember it clearly. I proposed to her in my car in her driveway and she accepted. Four months later, Ellen flew to Hawaii and we were married on December 7, 1957. accompanied by my sister, Jean, who acted as Maid of Honor. We had our wedding reception at the Cannon Club, an officer's club, on the side of Diamond Head overlooking Waikiki.

During the next three years, our daughter, Jill, was born at Queen's Hospital in Honolulu. Ellen enjoyed the beach at Waikiki while I deployed to Midway Island for two weeks out of every month. After my discharge from the Navy, we moved back to New England and lived in Scituate for 30 years.

During  the 45 years, after my Navy discharge, Ellen and I survived many difficulties, not unlike most couples, but our love for each other has remained steadfastDuring that time we added two more children to our family, Martha in 1961, and Glenn in 1966. In all, we now have six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, all doing well.  

During  the 45 years, after my Navy discharge, Ellen and I survived many difficulties, not unlike most couples, but our love for each other has remained steadfast. After working part-time for many of those years, and during a stretch when I was laid off from my work, Ellen applied for and got a bi-coastal job as a live-in Nanny for the Chief Executive Officer of Paramount Domestic Television, so off she went to Beverly Hills and I followed several months later.

Ellen and I decided that that the Nanny job was a bit too much and paid too little, so she gave it up and applied for another job at an agency. She then went to work as a live-in Nanny for a movie producer in Beverly Hills while I lived in Venice Beach and worked selling securities for the Bank of America in the Marina Del Rey area.

Baby-sitting a Princess in the palace at Riyadh

A year later, Ellen made another change. She was hired by a Saudi Arabian princess to be the Nanny for an expected child in Riyadh. So, she spent the next year in the palace there. When she returned, our journey took us from LA to Palo Alto where we spent five wonderful years at Stanford University as managers for a condominium complex on the campus and from that time on we were never separated. Ellen worked as a live-out Nanny in Woodside during that time.

To Cape Cod  and our Golden Wedding Anniversary

In 2000, we moved to Cape Cod where we have enjoyed a completely different lifestyle from what we experienced in California. In December, 2007 we will celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. We have never forgotten the advice the minister who married us gave us: Never use what has happened in the past as a weapon in an argument. Our strength, I think, is in our differences. Ellen is an Aquarius, I am a Taurus. On that basis, we're not supposed to be completely compatible, but it looks like we have gone contrary to the universe. We have 49-^1/2 years to prove it.
 
John Prophet lives and writes about Harwich in a blog here. He has chaired two writing groups at the Brooks Free Library; is an active member of Sisters in Crime, & The Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators. John holds a Masters degree in Special Education from Boston University. He is also an accomplished  novelist. A Jaded Affair, the fifth Casey Miller mystery is now available online at all major outlets. To order call toll free: 877-823-9235. Visit his website here.