Courtship
When
I had to put my farm dream on hold, I ended up
moving back in with one of my inventory families, to help with those
same kids. The family matriarch had plans for me, though I didn't
know
it. She (Sue Ella) and her sister (Rose Nell) were playing
matchmaker and believed that Rose Nell's son and I were perfect for
each other. Sue Ella tried every trick in the book
to get us to meet, but I scurried the other way just as quickly as
possible. He'd be coming down for Thanksgiving? Sorry --- I
have to
go visit my father! You want me to help him drive your son's
possessions across country? Are you nuts?! Even though I'd
traveled
the world, I'd never kissed a boy --- women in my mother's family tend
to be late bloomers --- and I didn't particularly see why I should
start now.
When Sue Ella finally
pinned me down in 2005, she and Rose Nell didn't trust us to go on this
first,
blind date on our own. Intead, Sue Ella put me in her car, Rose
Nell
put Mark in her car, and all four of us met at a restaurant in the
middle. After our date, we browsed for a while in the Dollar
Store,
and went our separate ways. In fact, Mark fled all the way to New
Mexico, but he emailed me and slowly wiggled his way through my
defenses and into my heart. Four months later, we kissed for the
first
time while listening to a chorus of spring peepers. When we
kissed again
in a cave, my knees went weak, and 17 months later we moved onto the
land. Mark had been the missing link in my farm dream, even
though I
hadn't known it at the time.
| This post is part of our Decade in Review series.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Great story
I'm a New Mexico girl myself (southwestern region), where was Mark when he was here? Hope that you all are finally drying out
after all that snow! Happy January!