Love Boat

My husband and I met in 1991 when I was on a cruise celebrating my divorce. He was on the same cruise along with nine friends. The water was extremely rough, and I was so sick that I was wandering around trying to get topside for some fresh air. He found me on the stairs,I was looking really ill. He asked me if he could help me, and I answered “I need outside”.He helped me find some open air on deck and introduced himself. At the time I was pretty tired of having guys bolt when they heard I had kids, so my introduction went like this “Hi, my name is Patti and I'm  twenty four and divorced with two kids.” As expected he said he had to go meet some friends and took off. The next night at dinner I realized he was at the next table and everyone at my table had just heard the story.They all encouraged me to go apologize for being rude. So, I walked up to the table and tapped him on the shoulder and said “I don’t know if you remember me from last night, but I just wanted to say thanks for helping me and I’m sorry I was so rude.” The man sitting next to him laughed and said "Wow! He wasn’t kidding. He did meet a cute red head last night, we thought he made you up." They invited my friend and me to hang with them that night, and we got to know each other over the course of the trip. He was in Illinois and I was in Pennsylvania, so I knew I could never see him once the cruise was over. I was wrong. He called me often over the next few months, and then offered to buy me a ticket to come visit him, because he knew as a single mom I couldn’t afford it myself. Well, love bloomed and he flew me out once a month for about a year. He did get cold feet at one point and broke up with me for a few months and then called to explain that he was sorry. It was just that after his divorce he really didn’t want to go down that path again, but now he realized he wanted to be with me. His friends later told me they were telling him to call me, too. We saw each other for about six months more and then he said “Why don’t you think about moving to Illinois with your kids, because these flights are expensive and it’s almost cheaper to buy you a house.” Within about three months we found a house that he purchased, and me and my children moved. We have lived in Illinois since 1993 and were married in 2002. We will be celebrating our 9th wedding anniversary on October 13^th and will be together 20 years this Thanksgiving.