My Great Guy

Here he is....the one and only Richard Dean Robbins, my wonderful husband.

This is the two of us, before I got my hair cut. I'm not sure where we were.

I don't recognize the background here either. I don't know who took it.

This was taken at our oldest granddaughter's wedding.

Isn't it great that I remembered this one at least?

Of course I had to have this Great Guy transfer these pictures. I don't think I will ever be able to do it on my own, but maybe next time. I am determined that I am going to learn how.

I've blogged about other members of my family, and realized that I need to let you all know a little bit more about Dick. I am so grateful that our paths crossed in this life as he is absolutely the perfect person for me, or as Sue says, we are joined at the hip. Yep, she is so right. There is no person on earth that I would rather spend time with and that is saying a lot, because I absolutely adore time spent with any of my family members.

But now about Dick: He was born in Monticello, Indiana. Unfortunately, he never had his father around as he left Dick's mother for another woman and so Dick grew up with no father, but having a wonderful role model, his Grandfather Robbins. He truly adored his Grandpa and I am so glad that he modeled his life after this terrific man. Grandpa was a baker and Dick loved to spend time at the bakery and was often treated to breakfast or lunch out, which he loved.

Dick had an older brother, Chuck, who was a few years older. His Mom was their sole support so it wasn't an easy life for her. She used to work at Sears in the customers service department. Dick used to work whenever he could to help his mom with the finances. When he was thirteen he got a summer job riding an ice cream three wheeled bike, two wheels in the front under the ice cream freezer and one wheel in back. I wish I had a picture of that to post. He made really good money that summer, as much as his mom and he always handed over his check to her. Between his mom, his Grandma and Grandpa Robbins, he had a great childhood, even though. He had great friends always, so that helped too.

He went to colllege and got a degree in accounting and after a couple of jobs in Indiana, he ended up working for ITT Gilfillan in Van Nuys California, which is where I met him. We met under strange circumstances. I had just taken a new job at the same plant, only in a different department. My boss sent me over to the accounting dept. on my second day on the job to get some data for a report I was supposed to do monthly. The data was in a book called the BPR (Budget Performance Report) My boss, Sam, asked me to have Robbins explain just what was in the BPR and I was to tell him when I got back to our office. Initially, it went pretty well, as I met Robbins and got my data from this really thick book. Then I told him what my boss had wanted me to find out about this BPR. so that I could tell him. I will never forget his response. He had been sitting on the front of his chair and he rocked way back in it and gave me this hard look and replied, " You tell Sam Carfano if he wants to find out what is in this book, he can darned well come over himself and ask me!" I left in a hurry, I can tell you and I had the task of telling my boss what Robbins had said. From that point on, I was honestly afraid of Robbins and I fortunately met a girl who worked in accounting and from then on, I would get her to get me my data each month. I also would avoid meeting him and every time I would see him in the hall, I would turn and go the other way. After a few months of this, my niece, Nancy (who had been working there a long time and actually got me my job there) and I were invited to a luncheon given for one of the employees who was retiring. We were a little late getting there and found out there were only two places left and one was right next to Dick Robbins. I told Nancy she HAD to sit by Robbins but she insisted she wanted to talk to this other guy, so I had to sit by him!! Well, you just don't sit next to someone and ignore them, so we got into a little conversation and I found out that he loved music and used to sing in a performing choir. I told him of a local one that our symphony did concerts with occaisionally. I offered to arrange for him to audition for it if he would like. To make a long story shorter, he got into the choir and then I used to get comp tickets for him to attend our symphony concerts. (To those of you who might not know, I was a professional violinist.)

After a few months, he asked me out to dinner after one of my concerts. I was glad to go because I never ate before a concert. The problem though was that it was so darned noisy that we really couldn't talk, so after we ate, he suggested that we might go to his apartment, which was near, and talk some more. You know, it didn't even occur to me to think that might not be appropriate, so I went and we talked for hours, way into the morning. The rest, as they say, is history. I maybe should mention that my husband had been long gone as he left me for another woman also. I just didn't want you to get the idea that I would be stepping out on a husband. No, I never did that. I had custody of my three children and Nikki was taking care of them. She was fourteen and very capable.

When he did propose, I said yes, with the understanding that it would have to be okay with the kids. I did make him propose to each one of them and they all agreed that they would like to have him for a stepfather. We were married by my Bishop in the Relief Society Room and after he joined the church, we were sealed in the Temple after a year.

I won't go into the years since, only to say that we have been so happy. This is one "great guy" for sure. He is so patient, so gentle in all his ways and I can honestly say he has never once raised his voice to me. (I wish I could say I have never done the same to him). I could never stay mad at him for very long. On August 12 we will be celebrating our 40th anniversary. I don't suppose we will ever reach 50 years so this is quite a significant one for us, although I am going to try to make it until our 45th one anyway.

I don't think I want to go back and edit this, so please forgive any typos. I am so tired tonight. We are having a couple of friends over for dinner tomorrow and we'll watch the fireworks from our driveway. I have dinner all prepared tonight so will just have to take it out of the refrigerator as we are having a cold dinner, sliced ham, potato salad, corn on the cob (oh yes, that will have to be boiled, but that will be Dick's job) and key lime pie for dessert.

Enough already!