Reservations (ONC24)

Chapter 2- Gladys

TW- Miscarriage

Hello, yeah sure take a seat. I'm just thinking about my life and trying to make a decision.

When you live for over a hundred years you see the world change.  A lot of it is for the better some of it less so.  When I was born people didn't have telephones in their homes, television hadn't been invented and now people can watch television on their phones.

The world was huge countries seemed so far away.  The first transatlantic flight took place the year I was born, since then men have walked on the moon. Robots were science fiction and now some of them are smarter than our best scientists.

Somethings though like prejudice and hate still exist I wonder if it's part of the human make up to put others down because of differences. Sometime I think it's changed and other times I think we just got better at hiding it.

Anyway I can't really complain, I'm a wealthy white woman who never had to fight for anything in my life. I know I am privileged.

I have had a good life, lots of people would probably think it normal, dull even. But to me I guess I achieved the ultimate. I got to die quietly and peacefully in my sleep, with my family there to comfort me. Trust me when you get to my age that's a goal and I don't think, looking around here, that so many have been just as fortunate.

But then it would have been hard to escape my family really. Henry and I had five children, and I have seven grandchildren, 12 great grandchildren and one great great grandkid. Not bad eh?

I think that's what I achieved in my life: I created a good home for us, and Henry was a good man. I met him at a church social when I was seventeen. That was in 1937 or 38, I can't quite recall now, but he was a few years older than me and I remember he looked very handsome in his crisp white shirt and sky blue tie. It matched his eyes and blonde hair perfectly. He was there with his Grandparents staying for the summer.

We talked a bit that Sunday after church and a few weeks later he asked my Dad if he could take me out. I was chaperoned the first time by my older sister Marilyn. We went for a picnic and a walk in the park and my sister sat on a bench and made sure that nothing inappropriate happened. She said that she'd tell my Dad that Henry held my hand while we walked, thinking that would get him into trouble. It didn't. She was a little jealous not of Henry and I, but she felt as the older sister she should have been out on a date with a boy before me.

Yeah it was all proper and above board. We courted for almost 18 months. He got to know my family well, even my brother Evan liked him.

My parents invited his family over for dinner at thanksgiving and soon after, after a night at the theater to see a Christmas entertainment show, he proposed. Of course I said yes. I was so excited to tell my mom and Dad, of course my Dad knew. Henry had asked for permission for my hand. He was always such a gentleman.

It was a time of great excitement. We had started to plan the wedding for spring the following year, because Henry was in school, and wanted to wait until he graduated before we wed. He was really smart. He was studying to become a doctor. Mum said I had hit the jackpot. But I knew I had, Henry Jensen was one helluva kisser, it makes me smile thinking back on all of this.

I was going to be Mrs Henry Jensen. That was Christmas 1940 and I was almost 20. We married a little later than we hoped in June 1941, I was nervous about lots of things.

But I remember a conversation my mom had with me the morning of the wedding about what might happen on my wedding night. It's not like how things are with people today. I had never been much beyond a kiss, before I was married. Okay maybe a little heavy petting, but that was it.

Sure, I knew about the birds and the bees. But my mom said not to worry if it was a little bit sore the first time and that frightened me if I am being honest, and it was. The whole thing actually was a little intimidating. Neither of us had any experience but I let Henry take the lead. Just like when we were dancing but this was different and I felt quite vulnerable without clothes on and seeing Henry naked was more odd than exhilarating.

But in the end we had five children so we managed to get over it. Practice makes perfect I guess. We practiced a lot in those first six months. I can't say that I ever got to a point where I'd say I enjoyed it but I knew Henry did and it was part of being married.

We miscarried in November that year. It was the first time I had really ever experienced loss. It was difficult, I didn't understand at first. There was just so much blood loss. I thought I had done something wrong, lay the wrong way or was bending too much. I felt so guilty. My mom explained that some babies are just too good for this world and that not to worry because it was more common than I thought, and babies would come in time.

And they did, but not for many years.

Henry went overseas; he signed up knowing the troops would need field medics so he went to Europe for almost three years.

They turned out to be the most interesting years of my life. I think I did so much living during those war years. I was a factory girl, I answered the call to Rosie. You must have seen that picture. You know the all American woman with her hair tied back in a polka dot scarf, dressed in overalls. Well she was known as Rosie the Riveter. That was me and half of the women across the city.

We all got jobs. I was in manufacturing, making planes for the war effort. It was quite a time of it, it always makes me smile when I think about the laughs we'd have and the characters I met. Some of us remained friends for life. Some of us never saw each other again as we went back to our husbands and home life. It was also where I met Beatrice. Beautiful Bea.