About me Part II
Jim and I settled into life in the bay area. He was a machinest at the time, and I got hired on with the County of San Mateo as a Staff clerk and then with a Real Estate Company. Our first year was hard, and since we did not live together before marriage (heck, there was no time!! ) we had a lot to learn about compromise, selflessness, and not losing it over each others personal habits that drove us CRAZY! Looking back now, it was a sweet sweet time in our lives.
Our 1st anniversary came and it was truly bittersweet. As Jim and I cut the top-tier of our now thawed out wedding cake (did not taste good AT ALL), my father sat across the room, his head shaved and marked up with grease pencil as he was going in for brain surgery the very next day. You see, his cancer came back in his brain. He had a 2 year remission in which he and my mom got to enjoy some time together in their retirement…but it was way too short. A second operation in August 1989 also failed to remove all the cancer and he was gone by November. This was the most difficult time in my life. Most of it is still a fog in my memory, with only flashes here and there to remind me of that sad sad time.
So, life goes on. You find a way to press through the hurt and I did all I could to comfort my mom who had lost everything. She built her world around my brother and me and my dad. She told me, “Honey, you lost a father, I lost my whole life”
We kept going, working etc..Jim had landed an awesome job with a bottled water company just before Dad died. So things were going very well for us. The summer of 1991 we found out that we were going to have a baby. The byproduct of a very fun Memorial Day camping trip with friends, wink wink. February 13, 1992 (4 years to the day Jim and I met) Sarah Kaye Wilson was born and made us a family. She was a beautiful baby and we were so happy.
We were still living in the bay area and wanting to get away from the city to raise Sarah in a better environment. Jim’s company was talking about building a new bottling plant in Livermore, and as Jim’s delivery route was already in Livermore/Pleasanton we knew that once built he would be transferred to this new facility – our opportunity to move away from the craziness of the bay area. But we had to wait for it to be built etc etc…then the paperwork for the transfer…we waited. FINALLY – Jim got the news that it was going to happen and that we better start packing and finding a place to live. We also got some other good news this day…We found out that I was pregnant again…THE SAME DAY! Wow, my head was spinning – so much to do.
In September 1994 we settled in Tracy CA – about 35 minutes from Jim’s work. . We welcomed James Eric (Eric after my father) Wilson on April 29, 1995. We were a family of 4 and Sarah was a big sister.
Fast forward…it is 2002. My grandmother is sick and in the hospital on Maui due to a complication from a very mundane procedure. My mom is now living with my grandparents in Hawaii to be with them and take care of them in their older years. She reconciled their broken relationship from the Mor-Rad sale; it was a request from my father before he died that my she reconcile with her parents. As always, such a dutiful and loving wife, she did as her husband asked. Things were looking bad, so grandpa sent us 4 tickets to go to see her and be with family during this difficult time. She died 2 days before my grandfathers birthday and 2 days before we could get there. It really stung. .I was her only granddaughter. She had a nickname for me, “Precious”. That is what I was to her…and what she was to me. The hardest part was…she never got to meet her great grand-kids
So, we were in Maui, the first time as a family – and we made the best of it. The kids were young (10 and 7) and had never seen the ocean, it was another bittersweet time in my life.
To be continued…
