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Honeymoon in the VA - Fate Fairies - book version
This entry was posted on 12/6/2011 2:00 AM and is filed under Fate Fairies:Fate Fairies - book version.
It was a tough era, those late 1970s and early '80s. Heide and I planned to get married after only about eight months of dating. Decisions had to be made. The economy in Wisconsin?.., well, to use a colloquialism..., it sucked. Heide finished with her college in Chicago and the company she worked part-time for in that same Chicago offered her a good full-time job in the better economy of Dallas, Texas. I was bartending and driving school bus.
...., we went to Texas.
But, the caveat was, we had to work it out on a quick timetable. Or, other desperate people would simply take our place in the somewhat more vibrant Texas economy. We both still talk about the "Reagan Ranges" we came upon in Houston, Texas - tent cities of blue-collar workers from other beleaguered states, cops, nurses, mechanics, secretaries. The camp ground sported license plates from every economically ravaged state in the country. We married in November of 1981 and there was only a few days leeway before we would have to head to Texas.
I had made a change to the wedding date - a big request for the male. A couple weeks after Heide announced the date, something about it just did not seem right. Then, it dawned on me it was the same day of the month I had entered the Army - that was just too creepy for me at the time - we moved the wedding day back a week.
I came up with the idea to head over to and down the Mississippi River for a ways. The Wisconsin November weather was better than usual the year of our marriage, but we dared not head to Northern Wisconsin (a popular tourist destination) and tempt fate with that region's potential bad winter weather.
There were several warm days; we putzed around in Prairie du Chien along the big "River" in the tri-state area of Wisconsin, Iowa, and MInnesota. There is a picture somewhere of us both standing on grassy highground above the River on a beautiful November day.
After a couple days, we headed back to Madison to have a nice dinner and one last night away before heading back to my little apartment to prepare to leave for the Lone Star State. We found a nice eatery joint operating in an old church building. One of my old classmates and football teammates coincidentally was bartending and we had a nice chat.
Later as we were leaving the restaurant, my cheeks began to puff up a bit - then my fingers. This was not too unusual, since the Army I seemed to be having some mild allergic reactions now and then, and I had endured that bee sting episode a couple years prior. But by the time we got on the road to head to our hotel I realized I would need to remove my ring before it was too late - soon it could only be cut off. A feeling of impending doom was setting it - my throat was slowly constricting.
"I have a bad feeling," I told Heide while taking a couple extra breaths.
"You better get to a doctor, this won't get any better." Heide had dealt with asthma allergy reactions for her whole life. It was obvious I only had a few more minutes to figure out what to do - we had to move quick or I was a goner.
I had never used the Veterans Hospital since leaving the Army. Something in my pea-brain clicked - we had no insurance. Madison has a well-known Veterans Hospital connected to the University Hospital.
Long story short, I spent the rest of our humble honeymoon in the hospital. We will never know what set off the anaphylactic reaction - it is the nature of the illness. But, the VA took good care of me. Everyone was nice. The post Vietnam myths about the VA being a bad place were not reality this night in question. And, I can't help noting that my new partner in crime was an expert on allergic reactions.
I wonder how I would have fared without the VA's help and Heide's timely knowledge on the subject?
..., we had been out in the middle of nowhere just a day before.
Note: This blog "Fate Fairies" - book version Category is a work in progress. The original vignettes are being edited for book form. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Fate Fairies Page for an ordered chronology of the book vignettes (chapters).
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