This is a picture of my wonderful parents on their wedding day. In case you're thinking that it looks a little more recent than the typical parent's wedding picture, you're quite right. You see, this picture was taken when I was 26 years old.

I am what used to be called a "love child". Yes, I was born out of wedlock, an illegitimate child. Now I know that doesn't seem very shocking now, but when you're talking the early sixties and in Salt Lake City of all places, and when you consider that my Mom was a "good girl" from a mostly Mormon family, it's pretty shocking stuff. But I prefer to think of it as a wonderful love story.

My parents met in about 1955, I think. They both worked in the same insurance office - my Dad as an agent and my Mom as an adjuster. She would have been 30 and he was 40. She had already been married and divorced - another no-no in those days, and had my older sister, who would have been about 7 or 8. My Dad was a married man, but his wife suffered from extreme mental illness, so she was in and out of hospitals her whole life, and while he never spoke of their time together, I'm sure it was very difficult. I know that in later years, he did all the cooking and laundry, and most of the housework, so I suspect she was barely functional.

So, they met at work and eventually fell in love with each other and began a love affair that would last for the next 40 years. About 5 years in to it, they had a little slip up with the birth control and my Mom found out she was pregnant with me. I really can't imagine how stressful that must have been for her. I know she was already getting flak from a lot of different directions for being involved with my Dad. My sister tells me that the neighbors wouldn't allow their children to come over and play and I know that several family members were very upset about her being involved with a married man. I can't imagine how much ostracism she would have faced by having a baby on top of all that.

It wasn't much better for my Dad either. Obviously his wife needed him, not only for financial support, but for her day-to-day care and he just didn't feel like he could leave her to marry my mother. I guess he would have been considered a cad either way, so he chose the easier path, to stay with his wife, and continue to keep the affair a secret. In fact, he kept it so secret that no member of his family knew about me until my parents actually got married. And by then, I had missed out on the opportunity to meet either of my grandparents because they were long gone by then. That was kind of sad and I really held that one against him. My maternal grandmother died when I was six from esophageal cancer, so I felt very short-changed in the grandparent department and I resented it bitterly.

To be continued....