Simply Mad about LOVE stories - day 2

Day two of "14 Days of Love Stories"  is here!  Christine sent us her parents'- Maureen & Hector - love story.  Christine live in Hayward, California not far from where this love story unfolded.

Very touching love story full of perseverance,  patience and determination - at the beginning from Christine's mom and later on from her dad.






Here is Christine's parents' story...
{ It all started in 1968, my parents were both 11 years old. My father was a navy brat, so he and his family were always moving around. His family moved into a house in Hayward, Ca, which happened to be 4 houses up the street from my Mom's, who lived with her parents and 6 siblings. There were lots of kids in the neighborhood then, so they all played together. My Mom told me that she would be sitting outside with her friends talking and hanging out and my Dad would be running up and down the street with his friends lighting of fire crackers and then go inside and call the cops telling them it was my Mom and her friends. The cops would show up and talk to the girls who would then say it was the boys in the neighborhood. My Mom said that my Dad and his friends would always shoot the girls in their butts with beebees. Despite all the "girls YUCK!" flirting, my Mom still had a crush on my Dad. Once they were high school age, my Dad and his family packed up and moved to Japan for about 3 years or so and my Mom was devoted to trying to stay in touch with my Dad and his family. 

Maureen & Hector at their wedding

At that time, my Dad just saw my Mom as a friend. My Mom wrote my Dad, his 2 sisters, his mother and his father each a letter every single week they were gone. Things didn't work out between my Dad's parents while they were living in Japan, so his mother packed up the kids and moved them back to their house in Hayward. Of course my Mom was ecstatic! It was then that my Dad developed feelings for my Mom and they took each other to their Senior Proms. My parents continued dating after high school and got married in 1980. They moved into the house my Dad had lived in, in Hayward.  My Mom's parents still lived down the street. By 1988, my parents had 4 kids, 2 boys and 2 girls. In 1994, my parents pack all us kids up and we moved into a bigger house...it was the 17th house my Dad had lived in. In 1995, my Dad developed Multiple Myeloma (bone cancer) in his right arm which caused him to have to retire as a police officer. We were devastated. The following years were filled with lots of hard and emotional times. The doctors told him that with his type of cancer, he wouldn't live more that 3-5 years. My Dad lived just under 10! 


At the time of his passing, he was the 3rd person on record at Stanford known to live almost 10 years with his type of cancer. In the last 6 months of his life, my Dad had started setting goals of certain days he wanted to make it to for different reasons. Making it to a certain date meant extra retirement benefits would kick in to help my Mom financially. Some of his other goals were to make it to Thanksgiving so that he could have one more turkey dinner with my Mom. And Christmas so that he could watch his kids, who were now in their teens and early 20's, open gifts with that same look of excitement they had as little kids when Santa came. That year, we had a Star named after him and presented him with the certificate of authenticity on Christmas Day. He was pretty impressed with that. His final goal was to make it to Jan. 26, 2005 because my parents were to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary, which also happens to be my sister's birthday. He made every single one of his goals and died the following evening. It was very sad to see him go, but in the end, all he cared about was spending time with his family and celebrating his love with my Mom one more time. We just recently hit the 8 year anniversary of his passing and this story crosses my mind every year. It is an amazing story of LOVE that I love sharing! }

Thanksgiving dinner - Hector reached one of his goals!