June 19, 1976, the single most rewarding day of my life. That is the day God consecrated my connection to the person who ultimately led me to Him, the person who gave me two wonderful, amazing sons, and the person I love more than I thought I could ever love anyone.
When I met Terrie I was a junior in college, she was a sophomore. We were attending the University of Northern Colorado. Both of us were members of Greek organizations. Terrie was a member of the Delta Zeta sorority and I was in the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. Fraternities and Sororities would get together periodically for what we called “functions” and there were several occasions when the DZs and SAEs had parties together but for some reason I never met her at one of those. As I recall she was a member of the women’s auxiliary associated with the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. They were known as the Teak Tomatoes. We had our own women’s auxiliary known as “Minis” or Little Sisters of Minerva. I’m not going to give you much detail here other than there is no way you would get away with such a thing in today’s world!
A couple of my fraternity brothers were dating DZs and thought I should be too. At the time I thought I was doing pretty good for myself. I had long blonde hair, mutton chop sideburns, was an officer of the best fraternity on campus and worked at a mens clothing store in town which meant I had a pretty good wardrobe for a college kid. I’m not trying to say I was a big man on campus but let’s just say I didn’t really need any help finding dates to take to the frat parties. Then, for some reason, I hit kind of a rough spot, lost my touch so to speak. Maybe I wasn’t the big stud I thought I was or maybe word was out that I tended to move on from one girl to another pretty quickly. Being my junior year and carrying a lot of classroom hours in addition to working at the clothing store I decided maybe it was a good thing to settle down a little and start devoting more of my time to the books and a little less to my social life. A lot of the guys in the fraternity house thought I was nuts. I’d get home from work early in the evening, grab a bite to eat and hunker down in my room to study. Of course, back then, there were no cell phones or iPads or any of the other immediate communication means we have today. There was a single pay phone located on the second floor of the fraternity house. I rarely got a call but on one of those evenings when I was deep into a study guide for an argumentative theory class I was taking the phone rang and I heard one of the guys yell, Ideker it’s for you. It was around 10:00 in the evening so my first thought was something bad had happened. When I picked up the receiver on the other end of the line was one of the guys dating a DZ, George from Jersey we called him. “Doug, I’m over at the DZ house with Nancy and we need a fourth for Spades.” Spades was a card game we adopted and would play with friends when we were broke and didn’t have money to go out to the 3.2 bars (another subject for another time.) Well, I was ready for a break from my studies so I thought why not and I walked over to the DZ house which was only a couple blocks away. When I walked in the house there were George and Nancy sitting on the living room floor by themselves, a deck of cards on the floor in front of them. I asked where the other player was and they told me she would be there in a minute. A few minutes later one of the cutest girls I had ever seen came walking down the stairs in her robe. Evidently George and Nancy had not told Terrie they called me to come over and of course I had no idea what they had up their sleeve. That’s right, they set us up purposely. They thought I needed to meet Terrie even though she was dating a guy at the time. They didn’t think that guy was right for her and were playing match makers. When she figured it out she ran back up the stairs to change clothes and a few minutes later returned with a somewhat embarrassed look on her face. And that folks is how it all started. Looking back on it today there is one thing perfectly clear. God had orchestrated that little “rough patch” in my dating life because he was lining me up to meet my DREAM girl.
We were really young when we were married, each of us 22 years old. I’m not even sure we knew what we were doing but I am sure we loved each other and wanted to be together. So, on June 19, 1976 at Arvada Presbyterian Church we exchanged vows and became husband and wife. Being so young and so naive I had no idea the journey God had put me on. The reality is I didn’t even really know God at the time and giving my life to Jesus is another part of the story that is completely related to the person Terrie is.
So why share all this with you? Because it is important for understanding how I became the person I am today – hopefully a Jesus loving man who has an unconditional commitment to the care and support for the woman God put in my life almost 50 years ago. It is difficult to explain how deep my love is for Terrie. In one of my previous posts I talked about hearing your wife’s voice smile. Terrie does that for me. When I wake up in the morning the thought of her makes me smile. I have the privilege of watching her as she goes through her day, seeing the impact her soft, nurturing, loving ways have on other people. I get to witness first hand how she is loved by her sons, her granddaughters and everyone she surrounds herself with. I have to be careful about being selfish with her because that would be unjust to everyone else who knows and needs her.
For 48 years this beautiful, caring person has patiently led me, loved me, set examples for me and cared for me. This is our 48th wedding anniversary and it is a day to celebrate just like every day I get to share with Terrie. Every morning when I wake up, after thanking God for another beautiful day, the thing I look forward to the most is seeing Terrie’s face, hearing her sweet voice and telling her I love her.
For Terrie, I thank God every day.
Doug's Journey 