Anniversary

MON., APR. 6, 1998, 6:45 AM
FARM, STUDY

Hear Me this morning, o son, on this notable anniversary day. The actual event of this date 46 years ago took place in the evening, so this is still prelude, if I were one to take earth time seriously. It is a fine and important date to remember, for it was fairly early in My guiding of your life… and Lenore’s, too.

The guidance toward this event, the anniversary of which you shall remember today, began on the day, early in 1948, when you agreed to go for breakfast at the Kiefer’s. There you met John Fox, and to your “surprise”, shortly accepted his invitation to be a teacher and coach at Punahou School. (You learned later, of course, that your being unmarried and willing to be a dorm resident counselor was a big factor for John, but just accept that I was a factor, also).

In the summer, then, you made the trip to Hawaii on the Lurline, an important but not particularly memorable part of “the Plan”. Ten days later (you see that I can be time conscious if I really work at it!) you accepted Vic Johnson’s invitation to go down for the next landing of the Lurline, and from that not particularly exciting a task came the “meeting” – you and Lenore. You have some pictures of her in those pre-marriage years, but you also have a “mind-picture” (or is it now a “spirit-picture”?) of her coming down the gang plank.

For several months you both lived on the campus, sometimes had meals together, and began to be friends… which was important for My Plan. Then came her move to Waikiki and a memorable kiss. After a few dates and some months you developed the “feeling” that the two of you would eventually be married. But you also knew that her aspirations for a husband did not include one who was a teacher-coach. And yet… you knew it would eventually “come to be”.

My “Plans” are rarely in minute detail. It was going to take some time, I realized, for Lenore to turn to you, and you needed time to have the coaching career that you envisioned and were enjoying, so those “went together”. She had her “fling” with Ballard, and you had some success as a coach (but not enough so that you couldn’t close out that chapter).

Those next years were some combination of romantic and frustrating, but you began to know, more fully, that this was “to be”. Your sudden trip to California and finding her on the Redlands campus, when you should have been doing more preparation for your head coaching opportunity, was an indication of destiny. Then her secret return was the next step.

Your football season was memorable for its lack of genuine success… in wins… and for the frustrations it brought in courtship. But, finally, the engagement was announced, and the date was set. Then came the “struggle” over your continuing career. You finally decided it was not to be business, but… what? Another “item” in My Plan was that “tradition” that had developed, in Punahou faculty, to go to Graduate School at Stanford, so, hence, this was the answer.

The wedding and reception were memorable, and the honeymoon, too. Lenore began her “party-giving” in your Dole Hall apartment, and your love for each other moved from the excitement of courtship to the more mellow, long-lasting love in marriage.