I met Jay on a Blind Date.

Stop the presses. Lady Barbara had four, not three husbands. Good food and laughter at the Oak Cafe removed more deep secrets that she had been forgotten long ago. 
   Again we are sequestered at the Oak Cafe for lunch in Encinitas. It is about eleven and its meat loaf today. Greg, Tony, Barbara, Ron and I sit and patiently wait for food - good enough for a king, and of course  . Lady Barbara, who sits and waits at table 5. She arrives earlier, a little after ten, and allows her knight-in-shiny armor to wait on her. I mean Ron.she stiff suffers from the removal of a tooth last week.
   "I so wish the Lord to take me." She is not in a good mood and even the tasty meat loaf won't do today. "I think of Jay to this day. It is a shame the lord took him so young at 47. Yet he gave me seven kids who begot sixteen grand-kids and three greater-ones.."
   For me Lady Barbara provides unconditional love that my ex never could. It removes the ugly taste of a romance gone sour.Sally had been the love of my life. I had been a surrogate partner for her a few years ago. But the memory still haunts me. Lady Barbara's stories are my appetizer before our main meal-today it is meat loaf. And they allow me to forget the other.
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    I must remind the newcomers to my blog that  My Lady Barbara is a descendant of John the Surgeon Greene - who was linked to Katherine Parr, the sixth wife of King Henry the Eighth.  Like many old veterans like me, once she begins to speak, there is no stopping her.
   "I had a wonderful time last night. Natasha took Greg and me to see a ballet in San Diego. It was a bit too long but worth every penny. It cost $20 to see it."
   Gregorio sits next to Lady Barbara. His hair is combed and he is dressed with matching colors. He smiles at the Lady next to him. They are sweet hearts this Valentine's  week. Many years ago in Russia, Greg's band played for Joseph Stalin, a Russian dictator.  Besides a band leader, he doubled as a clarinetist. His rotund face always has a perpetual smile that reveals the cutest dimples on his cheeks. 
    "I just remembered why I loved dogs so much. In Highland Park in the thirties, I often wished to visit the Shepard that worked the sheep on a hill. Our home was next to the Santa Fe Railroad. I so much wanted my Mom to allow me to visit the man with the dog. My Mom finally allowed me to visit the man on my eight birthday." (Highland Park is located in the Northwest corner of L.A.)
   "The quiet man never said a word to me but watched his head of sheep. That must of been when I discovered my love for dogs. His dog knew exactly what moves to make to keep the herd in line.
    But remember Barbara, your Greene family had the largest herd of sheep in North Cumberland England in the 13th century. Tell me more about your Mom.Barbara
   "My Mom bestowed lots of love towards me. Our lives really began when she rid herself of her husband. No longer did I have to live in fear...She was the first to make us vegetable burgers. We could not afford meat, but it did not stop us from feeding those who jumped the Santa Fe train during the great depression.  train. They needed toget off before it entered the Grand Union Station. They would have been arrested by the police at the station. The other neighbors did not like it, but my mom still opened her door for handouts to strangers. What little food we gave to them.{ (The Great Depression then, was in the 30's.)
   I know you met Jay on a blind date. Your Aunt Helen's cousin called you. Her engineer husband needed to come up for a dancing partner for a new employee at Bechtel.
   "Yes George, I remember it well. I was so infuriated. Why I never ever needed a blind date...but when he showed up at our door my anger turned to excitement. I had never seen such a handsome man in my life...To this very day I miss him. The other husbands could never supplant my darling Jay."
    "Mr Bechtel had just promoted him to put up a power station in Saudi Arabia. George Schultz, who sat on the Board of Directors at Bechtel, wished to move him far away. His wife, a Mott, ,hated my guts. I was going to place two of my youngest in a boarding school. I did not wish to go but I would have followed my Jay anywhere...that is when he came down with a brain tumor."
   Let's get back to the dinner table. What time did Jay  return from work?
   "Promptly at five thirty and not a minute later. We sat down together for the usual, stew. I had a big kettle that I threw everything into it. He enjoyed eating with us. He always took work home with him. After his death, my daughter took it hard...She began to deal with drugs."
   "A man in the accounting offices of Bechtel wished to marry me. After we married, he returned drunk one night and told me he got hitched "in order to get the controller's job at the company. I divorced him one month later. I gave him a couple of thousand dollars to sign the divorce documents."
 So I guess you had four husbands.
 "You must be correct. I wished to kill myself after my husbands death.  A dream I had was sitting inside a car going nowhere. I jumped out. I heard a voice. 'Barbara, get up...life goes on...listen to me!" 
  "From then on, I obeyed HIM and now have sixteen grandchildren and three great ones."
In my will,  I have given money on gift cards to all of my children and a tidy sum for Calib - my dog so he could be taken care of the proper way."
   
At the end of the lunch , she left the Oak's cafe arm and arm with smiling Russian Greg. Their lift for home waited outside for them.  My own depression lifted and I began to play the Grand Oak's piano and my favorite,  You were only foolin...while I was falling in love.