After living at the YWCA for a year and half, Betty and I rented an apartment (Half a duplex) together. The night we moved in, we were having a moving party. Of course the stereo was too loud. Ray one of our new neighbors was a milkman and had to get up at 3 am. He sent Al (his roommate) over to ask us to turn the stereo down. We turned the music down and invited Al to stay.

I had a boy friend for each night of the week and needed another one like I needed a hole in the head. I kept trying to match Al and Charlene up because she didn't have a boy friend. Al didn't want to go out with Charlene and kept coming over each day even if one of my boy friends was there.

Al was quiet and although serious, he seemed to have an easy going, gentle manner. He was interested in my thoughts and what I wanted out of life. We spent hours sitting in the swing on our front porch talking. We talked about everything from our past, our beliefs and politics to what we wanted in the future. There was nothing we could not or did not talk about. We rapidly became best friends. We were comfortable with each other and wanted the same things in life.

I realized how much I cared for Al about 3 days after I met him when he came over one night and asked me if I would like to go with him to collect an insurance premium. I wanted to go so bad I was hot and cold all over but had to say no because I had a date with Alberto (he was sitting on the sofa).

Al left and as I turned around, Alberto said, "you are going to marry that guy." I told him we had just met and there was no way. I asked, "why do you think that?" He said, "because you are already in love with him – I can tell."

After a week, I stopped dating everyone except Al. Actually, we never had a date. He did not have a car or any money. We took walks to the park and sat on the porch a lot.

About a week after we met, I heard that my best friend’s husband had beaten her up again. I was really irate. I told Al, "If my husband ever hit me, when he woke up in the hospital, he would be served divorce papers."

Al had been selling Life insurance for Southern Life and Health. He was not making very much money. He tried to find a better job to no avail. He enlisted in the US Navy. Since he had been out of the service over a year (Air Force), he had to go to brush-up boot camp. He was scheduled to leave the Monday after Easter 1965.

On Thursday, Mom picked Al and me up at Alexander Motor Co. and took us to Buna for the Easter weekend. After church Sunday, she took us back to the duplex. Since Al and Ray had moved back into the Y, Betty and I had moved into their old apartment because it was larger. Mom pulled up behind where she thought I lived and I said, "not here: next door." She turned around and asked, "Don’t you two think you should get married before you move in together?" We laughed and told her what was going on.

After Mom left, we went for a walk to the park. We were walking down the sidewalk at a fast pace. Al asked, "Will you marry me?" And I replied, "Uh huh." Then we kissed and sat down on a park bench to talk.

He assured me our children could go to church and I could teach them about Jesus. He felt moral values were important and they could get that in church; but, he would not go to church and did not believe there was a God. He said our children could make up their own minds about God.

Even though I had read my Bible a couple of times, I don’t remember reading the verses about Unequally Yoked.

Like so many Christians, I thought I could reach Al for Jesus after we got married. I did not realize that people who have really high moral standards like Al would be harder to reach. If you don’t think there is anything wrong with you, why would you want to change? Nor did I realize how much I would get in the way of Al accepting Jesus. No one is perfect (we are declared perfect because of what Jesus did for us) and when you are married to someone, they know all your imperfections (Al was a perfectionist).

Al wanted to wait a year before we married to make sure I could handle the separations of military life. I agreed. He left for Navy boot camp the next day. He was only gone a week when he called and said he wanted to get married as soon as he got out of boot camp in three weeks.

2 Cor 6:14-18 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? … Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? … For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people. Therefore "Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you. ….

Heb 10:12-14 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.