Previously posted in February 2008
Since it's Valentines week and because I've probably been asked twenty times now how Doug and I met, I'll do it today... a long post, indeed. Doug, to this day, cringes when someone asks us, how we met. Because, truth of the matter is, we met while he was on his LDS mission in Florida. You know, the two boys in white shirts and ties with backpacks on, riding bikes everywhere ... Yep. The short of it... Doug taught my step-dad the gospel while on his mission in Florida, connected with the family and kept in touch, came back after his mission to visit the family when I graduated from High School and he was at BYU. We married a year later. Now, for the juicy details that make Doug cringe, read on.
First of all, and most important, Doug was the best missionary! He followed the missionary guidelines and we were not inappropriate in our relationship while he was a missionary at all! There, he can relax now and I can tell the story. Back then, these young men were told to "Lock their hearts" and leave the key at home before they went on their two year mission in service to the Lord and the church. Doug was probably the most surprised to realize that he'd meet his wife while on his mission.
I had only joined the church a few years before. My parents were divorced. Mom was not that active in the church, so I didn't have quite the same dress standards imposed at home that most LDS girls my age had. I was sixteen, a Junior in High School. I dated a lot. I was a tease, or so my reputation would have it. I flirted and kissed the boys, but that was as far as it went because I was scared to death that Mom would ever catch me doing something that I shouldn't!
I had a little crush on one of the missionaries serving in our ward, Elder Chambers. I had sluffed church one Sunday afternoon and gone to the beach. Elder Chambers had a new companion assigned and meeting "the new guy" would be a great excuse to say hello to Elder Chambers. I timed it to pull into the church parking lot just as church was ending. Elder Chambers and Elder Corbridge were just walking out of the building when I honked my horn to get their attention. They walked over to my car, where I was waiting, sixteen years old, tanned body that I'd kill to have again, in a white string bikini. Elder Chambers took one look at me and said in his best Utah twang, "GARBAGE!!" because I was so totally immodest and inappropriately dressed. (Aren't we grateful that we grow in wisdom not just size as we get older!)
I began asking Elder Corbridge where he was from, about his family, how long he had left on his mission, all the normal questions. When Doug tells this story, he says that he was so shy that he was afraid to talk to himself! I scared him to death! We talked for just a few minutes. I said goodbye and spun out of the parking lot in my little red sports car. Doug/Elder Corbridge turned to Elder Chambers and said immediately, "And we will be staying away from that young lady, won't we, Elder?!" (Nice first impression, I made, eh?) At that point, Elder Chambers explained that they would be teaching the second discussion at our home on Tuesday night.
My mom and soon-to-be step-dad, Bill were dating at the time. I didn't care for him at all. He agreed to listen to the missionaries in effort to get on my good side. When the missionaries arrived at our home on Tuesday night, I was wearing a pair of "hotpants"(today known as Daisy Duke short shorts) and a halter top. Elder Corbridge took my mom aside and asked if I could not be in the room during the discussion because I was a "distraction". (I told you he was obedient!) Not amused, I did spend the evening in my room until dessert after the discussion/lesson. We visited a bit that night and I could feel that Doug was different. I asked him if he planned to come back to Florida to visit after his mission ended. He said, "Why would I do that?" After all, he had cows and horses and a pick-up waiting for him at their family ranch in Idaho.
Over the summer, Mom fed the missionaries almost nightly while they grew closer to Bill. We all did! In July, Mom and Bill were married. He became "dad" to me, instantly! Dad adored Elder Corbridge. Elder Corbridge had a classic 56 Ford Pick-up at home. Dad bought a 53 Chevy pick-up to restore just to have something to get Elder Corbridge talking. Dad just thought that the world was a better place because of Elder Corbridge. And so did I.
In the meantime, Elder Corbridge watched me dating a lot of boys. The missionaries spent July 4th at our home and he watched me leave and return on five different dates with five different boys that day. We talked about the boys that I dated, some of which Mom didn't care for. I was pretty open with him and making him blush many many times. He was always honest with me in his responses, like a big brother should be. He was five years older than me. One conversation that really impressed me was when he said, "I think that the more modest a girl dresses, the more beautiful she is." He was shocked when I showed up in church the next day with a modest outfit on! I never wore another halter top or short skirt again! (I did keep my bikinis though. °U°)
In August, my brother had a terrible bicycle accident, requiring nearly two-hundred stitches and almost losing his arm completely. It was on that day that I realized how much I had begun to care for Elder Corbridge because all I could think about was asking him to come to the hospital to give my brother a blessing. It was their "preparation day", their day off so that they can do laundry, write letters home.... It wasn't until evening before we reached the missionaries and I was so relieved to see Elder Corbridge!
Elder Corbridge was always very thoughtful and helpful whenever they visited our home. He'd offer to help Mom clear the table after dinner, to do things for Dad, whatever he saw needing to be done. The next night, after dinner, he offered to help wash the dishes. I'd never washed dishes! Mom did everything so that it was done her way...right. I offered to help with dishes, too! My mom warned me, "Leave Elder Corbridge alone! While handing over a dish, our hands brushed next to each other in the sink and I could feeeeeeeeeel the sparks fly! And they weren't big brother sparks at all.
One week later, Doug asked his Mission President to be transferred to another area because, he admitted, he was beginning to have feelings for me. President Nielson said, "Please don't tell me it's with Sophia Bell." (He knew me well, oops.) Doug was transferred to the Tampa area to finish the last few months of his mission. Elder Chambers baptized Dad a week after the transfer. A baptism is such a huge thing for a missionary and to ask to leave just before Dad's baptism had to be one of the hardest things Doug had ever done. During the remaining four months of his mission, Doug wrote to our family. I wrote to him for the family.
His mission president allowed my family to see him at the mission home on the night before he left to return home to Idaho. That night, Doug told me that he didn't know what the future would hold, but that he hoped that we'd have a chance to find out together. He flew home the next morning and we kept the phone company in business for the next year. *Note: the photo to the right was at Disney World, not the last night of his mission. We stayed arms distance apart at all times!
Four months later, Doug flew to Florida the week before my graduation. Our first official date was overnight with my entire Senior Class to Walt Disney World for Grad Night. We watched the sun rise every morning for the week, spending hours and hours talking and getting to know each other. Doug was still ever so shy, but we just connected, like we'd been waiting for eternity to get together!
Everyone had bets placed on when and where he would propose that week. It didn't happen. Doug's not at all impulsive. He went back to BYU and then the ranch. By Thanksgiving, we decided that I would fly to Utah, get a job and we could "get to know each other" better. Doug sent me a one-way ticket to Utah for Christmas. My mother and I took that as a proposal. Again, everyone expected that he'd have a ring waiting for me at the airport on Christmas Day 1976 when I arrived in Utah. It didn't happen. Or the next day when he took me to the ranch for the first time. Or the next day when he took me to a family reunion at Sundance Resort to meet 100 Corbridges. Nope. Not Doug. He wanted to be sure!
We took a few marriage prep classes at the LDS Institute that winter quarter and the teacher used Doug and I as the example of the couple who should not get married because we were so different. Different backgrounds, different lifestyles, different personalities. We had nothing in common! Finally, on February 19th, Doug and I hopped in his plum purple 56 Ford pick-up, headed up the canyon and made it to the summit of the mountain, after several attempts all winter long. We got out and started walking through the snow. Doug picked up a stick and wrote in the snow, "Will you marry me?" Then, he got down on one knee and proposed! I thought he'd never ask! That two months seemed like years!! We were married in the Idaho Falls LDS Temple in April of 1977, almost four months after I arrived in Utah. Now, thirty-one years later, our differences have come together somewhere in the middle quite nicely. I'm thinking this marriage may just work out. ;) And now you know, the beginning of the story!
Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but looking outward in the same direction.
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