A Third Time, Being, Asked Out

How she’d, found the man, who’s devoted to her, who’d, helped her family out, to marry, a good man, translated…

I was only seventeen when I started working for my firm, I was a first year high school night division part-timing student, other than work, I’d dared not, spoken an extra, word. But, I’d, observed how the other female employees’ gazes had, followed a young man around often.  He’s a college graduate who was assigned to our unit after he’d taken the specialist exams hosted by the country, with a straightened back, clear features, bright eyes, as well as a proactive attitude, he’d, stolen everybody’s heart at the office.  And, about a month later, he’d, asked me to go out on a picnic with him!

I’m the only girl in my family, other than two younger brother and my father, I’d, never interacted with any other males, and so, naturally, I’d, turned him down.  The first time, I’d, used the excuse of how I had to clean up my house on the weekends, the second time was how my school assigned me to oversee an exam, the third, he’d stated to me, “if you really don’t feel a thing about me, I won’t force you to, this final and third time’s my limit, I still, wanted to give it a try!”

And so, I’d, agreed to go see the movie, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, I was so nervous I’d lost my student identification.  Then, we’d, started dating, in the time, he’d, prepared me for my English courses, became my English tutor, encouraged me to test into the three-year-business night school division to study.

illustration from UDN.com

Back then, the wages and the money he received for his business trips were six times my part-time wages, plus there were a ton of problems from my own home: my father’s stock investments lost him everything, the debtors came to collect one by one, my younger brother ran away from home……………I’d, come to realize, that we were, never going to match up in anything, that we will, never be, married.  But after five and a half years of dating, we were, married, I was, twenty-three, he, thirty-one.

Before I wed, my mother-in-law asked me, “how much dowry are you and your families asking us for?”, I’d, told her, “I don’t have any dowry to bring to your family, so, there’s, no need for money on your side.”  She’d asked again, “how many boxes of cakes would you want for your side of the families, your relatives, your friends?”, I’d become, more blunt, “our families had severed all ties that they had with our own kin, we don’t have any friends, it’s not needed.”

Our marriage was held, at the auditorium of the Zhongshan Elementary School in Taipei, because my father was dodging the collectors, he was, a no-show, my aunt, and my younger brother came on behalf of my side of the family.  And, everybody in my office all came, my boss, the security guard of the building, they took two busses to the banquet, we had a total of over sixty round tables for the banquets.

About a month after we were wed, my husband went to visit my first-year middle school younger brother, found that he’d, contracted scabies, that he’d scratched his skin so red, to the point his skin was, infected, he’d, insisted that he moved in with us.  And, inside that cramped up, tiny space of apartment, there were, a total of thirteen of us, my in-laws, my younger brother and sister-in-law, we looked after one another.

My youngest brother is very hard working, he’d studied hard, found good work, and started his own family, it’d become, our, biggest, blessing.  Time flew quickly, in a blink of an eye, fifty-three years had gone, and now, my granddaughter is at the age when I was asked out for a third time by my husband, the adolescent girl should have the stories of how grandma and grandpa fell in love, in writing.

So, this, is how they found each other, she was only a part-time student, and he, a handsome lad, and, he’d, helped her family when they were in trouble, and to thank him, she’d, agreed to, marry him, and, they got along very well, because this woman’s husband had, shown her the kindness she was desperately needing, to get her family out of trouble when her family needed the assistance most.