My Life - Chapter 52 - My Partner

Rhonda and me at the 2011 Wisconsin State Fair.

We met in 1983.  I was a college sophomore, she was a senior in high school working as a Page in the Iowa House of Representatives.  

It's a good place to explain that I was 19 while serving as an TV news intern.  She was 17.  I wasn't dating anyone.  In the capitol, the pages were the only other people in the building close in age, so I talked with them on occasion.  OK, I mostly talked to the female pages if the opportunity presented itself.

A month or so into the internship, one of the pages approached me at the front of the House Chamber before business started.  She asked if I'd go with her to the Page's Ball; I said yes.  After that was agreed to, it made sense to go out to get better acquainted.

Rhonda has an engaging sense of humor, a big personality, is fun, and works hard.  The first date was a movie and a snack afterward at Swenson's Ice Cream Parlor.  We had a good time, agreed to another date, and decided the Ball might be a good time.

At the time, pages spent half the legislative session in Des Moines, so Rhonda returned home to finish high school.  We went to her senior prom (see chapter 17).  I went to her graduation. She had a summer job in New York City as a nanny that ended sooner than planned, then visited me in Des Moines in the apartment I shared with two other guys.

Across the summer, there were many visits between work and traveling from Des Moines to where she lived with her parents in Center Point.  Beyond the attraction, at its core we are similar in values and aspirations.  

That fall she enrolled at Central College in Pella.  Pella was closer to Drake than Center Point, but it was still a long-distance romance.  A financial aid snafu meant she left after one tri-semester, eventually moving to Des Moines where she lived with a former girlfriend of mine and two roommates.

I'm not sure exactly when I realized we were meant to be between the summer concerts and fall walks in the park, but it was clear.

Before I brought her home at Christmas, I went to the Merle Hay Mall to Helzberg Diamonds.  My $400 bought an engagement ring with a small diamond.  I schemed with my family, telling them that after we returned from the Christmas Eve church service, they should be "tired" and head to bed leaving the two of us in front of the roaring fire in the fireplace as Christmas music played on the family stereo.

After I asked her to marry me; I shouted "She said YES!"  Mom, Dad, and Danielle came back down for celebratory cocoa and treats.

We planned and paid for our own wedding, learning along the way if you can survive the planning you can survive the marriage. 

Rhonda's enduring quality is a combination of adapting, adjusting, and persevering.  She created a home when we barely had two coins to rub together; kept the family fed and house in order when we struggled between jobs; is forgiving; loving; and  present.  We've had ups and downs, blessed by our Almighty God who is keeping us together.

Which leads to Rhonda's best quality - her faith and how she lives it day in and day out.

As Solomon wrote in Proverbs 31: 30 - 31:

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;

   but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

Honor her for all that her hands have done, 

   and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.