We were almost in the Air Force. Jess had to do well at Officer's Candidate's School to make it real. He would. I had no doubt. When Jess makes up his mind, he accomplishes what he sets out to do. So off he went to pursue his dream: a successful Air Force career.
What about us? Little did I know that the laying of the pathway to the future was underway. I was deposited in Purvis, MS. We rented a house across town from Jess' parents. Jess had the notion they would help me with the children. Jack was almost 3 years old and Jon was 4 months. Money was tight. Jess would receive no salary during the three months he would be in training. Once he was commissioned he would begin to earn a salary. We had a small savings that we hoped would last.
The morning after Jess left, his mother called. Her 14-year old son would be over to pick up "my son's car to take me to Hattisburg." Dropping car insurance was one of the cost cuts we had made. When I told her about the lack of insurance that meant no one was driving our car, certainly not an illegal driver, she went into a towering rage, ultimately hanging up on me. So the tenor of my stay in Purvis was begun.
That's not to say I didn't have some strong supporters, including Jess' maternal grandmother. What a wonderful woman she was. The first time I met her before we were married, she was visiting from the TB sanitarium where she was a practical nurse. She was scheduled to retire the following year, and not the least bit happy about her fate. "They say it's the rule that I have to retire," she lamented, " and I'm only 72."
I made up my mind right then that was the exactly the kind of attitude I wanted to have about aging. My learning had begun.
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