Heather & Brad
Heather
I was born... okay, maybe I don't have to go back that far. My family moved to Sacramento in 1958 and I finished growing up there. It was there that I met my first husband, Chuck, in 1973. In 1974 I became pregnant so we got married -- a quick trip to Reno. It was not a marriage made in heaven. Eleven years and two kids later he moved out. Chuck did introduce me to computers. Our first computer was a Sanyo and when he left he took the computer and left me the kids. Sometimes, I tease the kids by suggesting he got the better deal. (As if!) That was in 1985.
In 1987, the kids and I moved in with my parents and when my dad died, we stayed on for the next 10 years. After my kids were grown and out of the house, I told my mom it was time for me to leave the nest again. After all, I was in my late forties and it was about time, don't you think? Besides, Chuck had died in December of 1994 and I was starting to date again and mothers can be so intrusive... I know, because I'm a mother too.
At any rate, in 1997 I moved from Sacramento to the San Francisco Bay area. Talk about getting out of the house! However, it turned out to be the best thing I could have done because I ended up meeting Brad.
Brad
Brad was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. The way he tells it, from the time he got his first car he had a pretty wild time. After hearing some of his stories, I'm surprised he survived! In his early twenties, he found the perfect outlet -- he joined the army and ended up as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division. I guess jumping out of perfectly good airplanes for a living was more fun than trying to kill himself with his car! Let's just say that it would take quite a bit to give him a thrill these days (besides me, of course). Kids love to go to Great America with him because there probably isn't a ride he won't go on.
Eventually, all that jumping out of airplanes took its toll on his body and he was grounded. The army, in its infinite wisdom, put him in front of a computer, told him to figure out how to cad (as in drafting) and assigned him to the Corp of Engineers. After 12 years total in the army, he was retired on VA disability. Not HIS choice, mind you. He'd still be in the army if they'd have let him. It was while he was in the army that he met and married his first wife. They had one daughter, Nancy. They divorced after Brad retired and they were living in Texas. After that, he moved back to the Bay Area.
Once back in the Bay Area, he met and married his second wife. That marriage lasted six years. It was about a year after the end of that marriage that we met. And what a great story that is...