I've Led Three Lives

This was the title of my “icebreaker” speech at Toastmasters. In summary, my first life was Diane German when I lived at home with my parents. I was there 18 years. Then I married and became Diane Gasaway. I had that “name” for 20 years. I divorced after 18 years. I married again and my name is still Diane Rizzo. I was married 25-1/2 years when Charles died. I was Charles’ secretary and quite frankly, I was not attracted to him. I thought he was a ladies man, but I did know that he knew where all the “singles” places were. We always walked to the parking lot together after work and as a result, he told me about all of his girlfriends. He felt very safe talking to me since I was married and was also a preacher’s wife. He told me he was devastated when I came in and announced that I was getting a divorce. I told everyone I worked with to not ask me any questions because I did not want to talk about it. Charles thought I had a perfect marriage because he said I was the only person he had ever worked with who never said anything bad about their spouse. He said he just thought wow, if Diane couldn’t make it, there is no hope for me. Of course, Charles was never, ever going to get married again. He had been married for 25 years and had been divorced quite a while. Before my divorce was final, I asked him if he would take me to some single’s places and he said he would. Charles became my best friend. I knew that none of his girlfriends ever lasted over six months, so when we started seeing each other, I began the countdown. Six months came and went and so did seven, eight, nine, and we actually went together two and half years before we got married. Everyone we worked with came to our wedding because they said they had to see it to believe it. They just couldn’t believe that Charles would actually show up. I remember Charles asking me before we ever started going together—on one of our walks to the parking lot—if I had ever fallen madly in love. I answered with the question, have you? He said no and that he would really like to experience that. I can say that we did fall madly in love and we stayed that way until the day he died four years ago. I miss you Charles everyday. DR 3/15/14