Chapter 3

Eventually she and her daughter moved out of her parent's house into an
apartment. Her daughter started school. By this time, I was not only
ready to marry her, but to adopt her daughter. I already thought of her
as my own child. We discussed marriage. Fairly often, actually. The
discussions usually kind of petered off without a real resolution.

We went on a camping vacation. I was yelled at for not listening. She was
right; I realize now. But, part of her being mad at me was that I taught
her daughter to ride her bike. She was 6 and had the same athletic talent
as her mom, she should have been riding for several years. So, I figured
it's time she learned. Everytime I tried teaching her she would cry a
little and her mother would say "If she doesn't want to she doesn't have
to". I think the only reason she was reluctant was because she had once
taken a hard fall with her training wheels on. Well, falling is a part of
learning to ride. So, one morning before her mother got up we went for a
walk/ride. I steadied her as she rode. After a bit, I told her I was
going to let go and the crying started. I pointed to a bench 50 feet
ahead and said, "You're going to ride to that bench. Then if you want
we'll go back and you won't have to ride again." I gave her no choice. 50
feet of riding, no matter how much she cried. After just the 50 feet she
was ecstatic. In fact, for the rest of the week we couldn't get her off
her bike. She would just ride around the oval campground driveway.

This was simultaneously the worst and best thing I could have done. Her
mother was quite upset with me for going behind her back to teach her
daughter to ride. But, it's just what the little girl needed. I will
never stop feeling terrible and terribly happy about this event. Only
months later I was to remind the little girl of how much she didn't want
to start riding her bike and then how much fun it was afterwards when I
taught her to ski. It took her 3 runs down the bunny hill to learn. I
have never ever seen this kind of ability before or since.

Somewhere over the last few years I had grown comfortable with the little
girl and I had realized that I was indeed ready to be a father. So, here
I was ready to be married to the best most beautiful women, adopt her
wonderful daughter and have more children with her. But, life doesn't
follow our plans. She was again diagnosed with breast cancer.

Continue reading Chapter 4.