Kathy and I had a wonderful life when I was in the Military at Dyess AFB, TX, just outside Abilene, TX. We lived on the base in Capehart Housing. A nice 3 Bedroom. We had the best friends you could ever want. We were all about the same age, all were Junior Officers, all had kids (babies really)… I don’t think any of the children had reached the ripe old age of 2 yet. We hung out, as I recall nearly every day. Our house was perpendicular to the street as was our neighbor’s house. The inhabitants of that house were Dr. John Kurtin, his wife Boo and their daughter Elizabeth and they were great friends of ours. Because of the way our two houses were positioned it provided a central point for everyone to congregate, set out lawn chairs, enjoy each other while the kids…the ones who could walk could run around safely away from the street. Other than the fact that Elizabeth, John and Boo’s daughter was described as the runny nose with the kid running behind it. She was a cutie. One thing that was fairly common was that most of us played racquetball, threw the football around and played golf. Kathy and I were really surrounded by so many amazing people, it was great just to get up in the morning and enjoy our lives at that time. There was Frank and Jenny Murnane our other next-door neighbors. Dr. Jerry and Patty Kaye across the street, Bill and Karen Sutton around the corner, Dr. Allison Guynes and his wife Sue, Ron and Susan Wright, Pete and Mary Ann Yankowski and finally in the inner circle there was Frank and Kathy Durham. Frank was easily the funniest guy I have ever known. I could say, at that time, he was probably my best friend. I remember we were playing in a golf tournament on the base and Frank was in the group in front of me. It was the 8th hole, a par 3 and they waived us to hit up. As luck would have it my 7 iron shot went in the hole for my only hole in one ever. I think Frank was more excited about that than I was. He went crazy. It was hard to look at Frank and not get a smile on your face or even start chuckling. He had a way about him that was very engaging.
One day Kathy and I went over to Frank and Kathy’s house. Frank and I were in the back of his house in a large grassy open area throwing the football around. At some point I lost my wedding ring. I was frantic. This was not good. We looked all over the place. I had to have lost it when we were throwing the football around. There were other occasions that we would look again in the same area when we visited Frank and Kathy. We even got a metal detector and went over the entire area. Several weeks passed. Frank and I were throwing the football around one day and I missed one of his throws. I reached down to pick up the ball, picked up my ring, and threw the ball back. Unbelievable, incredible, just like that I had my ring back. You know how you think some things are just meant to be. That was one of those times. I was convinced that Kathy and I were meant to be together forever, and the good fortune of finding that ring made me more convinced than ever that we would be together for the rest of our lives.
Decades went by. I went to the grocery store in Turlock one day. I put the grocery bags in the back of the car and noticed that my wedding ring was gone. Where was it? I am not a jewelry person, but once I put my wedding ring on in 1967, I don’t remember taking it off for anything. I still wear it to this day. Anyway, it was gone. I went into panic mode. I looked all around the car. Went back into the store…no luck. I ended up going home and told Kathy about my misfortune. We both felt that it was truly lost. I called Raley’s and left my name and number on the chance that someone would find the ring and turn it in. Weeks passed. One day I get a call from Raley’s. They started asking me a few questions. It turned out that someone had turned my ring in the day I lost it, but because of some odd circumstance the ring had been put in their safe and they had actually called my number but must have dialed wrong, so they just put it back in the safe. After a number of weeks passed, they noticed the ring again and called my number correctly and told me that they had my ring. Again, unbelievable, incredible, amazing, it proved to me that it was meant to be that my wedding ring simply couldn’t be lost. Call it fate, call it anything you want…the bottom line is that after 54 years I still have the original and it means a great deal to me, as the ring that refused to be lost. Love you Kathy with all my heart.
