Twenty two years ago today, Jodie and I tied the knot.
The Lutheran church on SE 39th (now Cesar Chavez Blvd.) and Brooklyn....
St. Paul Lutheran Church.
I was telling my friends at Special Olympics Oregon how Jodie and I met when I was three and she was four at Holladay Center in Portland. At the time it was a school for the physically disabled where classroom instruction was augmented by heavy doses of therapy - physical, occupational, speech - whatever we needed for us to become as independent as possible.
Jodie and I knew each other back then, but we were in different classes and we didn't really hang out back then. We both left Holladay Center, me in 1973 and Jodie in 1974, to be mainstreamed into public schools. Before I was mainstreamed, my family moved to Southern California. They took one look at the braces that I was wearing at the time and they said that I would never be mainstreamed down there. In 1974 my family returned to Oregon where I was mainstreamed.
Jodie graduated from Portland Lutheran High School in 1982 when I was graduating from Beaverton High School. Jodie's road took her to take classes at Concordia, Portland State University, and then to Western Business College. She then traveled around the U.S. with a group called Break Through, educating churches about the need to become accessible for the disabled.
I went to Oregon State University. I took hard classes and I did not do well. Engineering, business...not my forte. I took a class in journalism. The professors in that department took hold of me and told me "Hey, you are a great writer." I became a feature writer, a copy editor, and a columnist for the
OSU Daily Barometer, a job I loved very much. After college, I landed a job with World Christian Magazine as an assistant editor. A great job it was, but the magazine was going under, and I had to raise my own financial support to be there.
In October 1988 I moved home and started looking for work. I filled out applications and mailed out resumes. Kind of funny, I remember being a little down at times, but I don't remember being too discouraged. Something was going to work out...eventually. I just had to keep moving and stay positive.
In the summer of 1989 I volunteered at a state office in Beaverton. Don Bougher, the volunteer coordinator, had a Mac computer sitting on the floor in his office. Kiddies, this is back when computers were still part novelty. Don asked me if I could make that computer sing. I said, "Yes I can!" I created a spreadsheet with Lotus 1-2-3 for tracking volunteer hours.
A counselor I went to see mentioned that New Hope Community Church had lots of support groups. I went. They had a group for the disabled. I saw the leader of the group. "Jodie?" I said. "Troy?" she replied. I went to her apartment a few weeks later for dessert. We really hit it off. But, I remember thinking, Jodie had a job. She was working at the Portland Center of Hearing and Speech as an accounting assistant. And I, well, I was still a volunteer.
In my quest for self sufficiency, I was packing and getting ready to move to the San Jose area. A buddy had a room for me down there, I had family down there, and a community college down there had a good program for helping the disabled become employed.
A couple days before I was to leave for California, Don, the volunteer coordinator, spoke with Gary, the Children Services Division branch manager, whether he might have a job for me. A day later, Gary put my "flying fingers" to work as a typist.
It took a few months for Jodie and I to reconnect. She was so busy with church that she did not have time for anything else. When we finally got together in February of 1990, it was pretty evident that we were meant to be together.
Jodie is a great people person and speaker, I am a thinker and a writer. We each have strengths and weaknesses. Together we are greater than the sum of our strengths. On September 8, 1990, in front a church filled with family and friends, with Pastor Dave presiding, Jodie and I exchanged "I do's".
Twenty two years. I miss the people who were with us back then who are no longer with us, the grandma's and grandpa's. Ken, Jodie's brother-in-law, who walked her down the aisle. Two weeks after our wedding Ken was diagnosed with cancer and four years later he passed away. My friend Erick, who was supposed to be one of my groomsmen, had tumors in his head, that prevented him from flying out from St. Louis to be in our wedding.
Twenty two years. Jodie and I had no plans to have kids. Our plan was to take care of each other and to be as independent as possible. What's the old adage - if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.
Eric James was born nearly 17 years ago. Yes, life has been a whirlwind since then.
Yes, I do have a book to write. Do I have the discipline to do so? Well.....
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