It was a cold
fall weekend in November, the 2008, Sunday after when I met the love of my
life, but at that time, I didn’t know he would one day be my husband. I can
remember like it yesterday, I was wearing a red black pea coat and my hair was
blond and full of curls. That night, I
saw what I thought was a quiet guy. He didn’t even talk to me. Actually, he did quite the opposite, he
ignored me. That night, I drove back to
school at ECU from fall break and didn’t think anything else of it. Little did I know, he was on Facebook adding
over a dozen girls with the very same name, Amanda Lea, from ECU. Boy, I must
have left quite an impression. Shortly
after, he found the one and only Amanda Lea.
The one that would one day be his wife. Weeks came and passed and we connected
through social media. We talked every
night after 11 o’clock when he got off from work at Rock Tenn.
Early on we were
friends and Gray signed up for the Navy.
We went on our first date at Cracker Barrel in Clemmons, NC just before
he left in February of that year. I
remember that night he was telling me a story and said “when you meet my mom”.
Holy moly! That scared the crap out of me.
Weeks became years and the start of a new friendship. He and I both dated other people but we
always kept in touch. Neither of current
relationships at that time lasted. I
remember one night we were talking through text and I had a big goofy grin on
my face and my mom asked me who I was talking to. Of course, it was Gray. One thing led to another and somehow the
topic came up about Gray reminding me of my dad. I always told my mom that I wanted to marry
someone like my dad. Following C school,
Gray was stationed at camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, NC. Ironically, that was
just an hour away from the college I was attending for undergrad, ECU. On my 21
birthday, Gray came to hang out with me and we all grilled out. Little did I know that weekend would be full
of first. I was the first time Seth had
ever drunk and the first time we kissed.
All I can say is wow. Later on, I
found out Gray had several words to describe that weekend but wow wasn’t one of
them. Apparently, I had got makeup on
his favorite shirt. How rude! Right?
After that night
in May. I didn’t hear from him un July 4th. I thought he was the biggest tool I had ever
met. Could you believe that he had the
audacity to kiss me and never talk to me again?
This was evidence to my thought that all men were jerks. My roommate, Dailie and his best friends
became close…. VERY close. Like way too close.
You get the picture. Dailie and
Zach kept in contact and on July 4th we went to her family’s beach
house. During that time, she told me
about Zach and Gray getting into an accident.
It was the funniest story.
Imagine this, two grown men on one rope swing at the lake. You got that right, they missed the lake and
down the embankment they went. For some
reason, Gray decided to talk to me that night, almost 6-8 weeks since “the
kiss”. I hated him. Like, seriously hated him.
He proceeded to tell me how he wasn’t a good guy and not the dating type
and I proceeded to tell him how I never wanted to speak to him again.
Apparently, the
words “I hate you” were music to Gray’s ears. From that weekend on he was bound
and determined to make me his. I didn’t even want to be friends. I remember him
telling me that he would prove to me that he was sorry and that weekend he took
me on date number two at Olive Garden in Greenville, NC. Yes, I am a sucker for a man with brood
shoulders and a buff chest. We had so
much fun. I remember sitting outside on the bench and talking. It was so natural. This was a feeling I had
never experienced before and it scared me, a lot. Not long after, we all went camping at
Carolina Beach, just a little FYI don’t do that in July. We heard noises that weekend and let’s just
say they weren’t animals or not that kind of animals you’re thinking about.
Our relationship
soon got serious and I went to visit Grays family for the first time, um
wow. I had never been to a Chicken Stew
before, but there’s a first time for everything. Like a first time eating
chickens stew and a first time meeting every single person that Gray had ever
know in his whole life in one night. We
made it through that night, barely. I found out that I was the first girl that Gray
had ever brought home to meet his family.
That night, I realized this was the start of something serious. My whole life, all I ever dreamed of being
was a wife and a mother. From an early
age I had prayed for Gray McNeal Allgood, I just didn’t know that was my future
husbands name. Occasional visits turned
into daily drives between Greenville and Jacksonville and hour long talks on
the phone the nights we were apart. Now,
I can hardly imagine what we had to talk about. I imagine it was something to
the extent of “I love you more, no I love you more, no, no, no…” Kind of
nauseating now that I think about it. We
were “that” couple. With each passing
day I loved him more and more. I knew that I wanted to marry this man one
day.
Little did I
know that day would come a lot sooner than after me graduating. Soon, Gray received orders for California. I
was heartbroken. I couldn’t imagine my life without him. We were in love. Like that young, hot,
passionate love that makes people want to throw up. To my surprise, he asked me to go with him. I
thought to myself this boy had lost his mind. My dad would stroke out at the
thought of my going on vacation with a boy little lone moving across the united
states to live with my boyfriend. I
respectfully declined while laughing and saying “yeah I’m not moving anywhere
with you until were married”, but I boy did it make my heart flutter. I had never felt this way about anyone in my
life before and I had definitely never had anyone feel this way about me.
We enjoyed the
rest of our time together before Gray was scheduled to ESA to California. One day, while I was working at First
Citizens in Greenville, Gray showed up at my work. What a pleasant surprise! He said that Dailie
had locked him out of my apartment. Boy did he hate that girl. As I turned around to get my apartment key
for him and I turned around and saw the most gorgeous ring I had ever seen.
Where in the world did this come from? I was speechless. Like red in the face
flattered speechless. I asked him “What is this?” and he responded its yours. Do you like it? In a panic, I said put that
thing away, what are you doing? I’m laughing about the situation now. Boy, do I
wish I could have been a fly on the wall that day. I told him to take that thing home and we
would talk later and of course I said yes.
I mean have you seen my husband? He is gorgeous, in a rough and tough
kind of way. Never in a million years
did I ever think I would land someone like Gray. He was perfect and WAY out of
my league.
Time was running
out and we decided to go to the courthouse and get married so that we could
have some extra money for the big move.
In the military, sailors receive additional housing allowances if they
have dependents, that was me. I’ll never
forget the day we got married, but before we got married I made Gray ask my dad
for my hand in marriage. Boy, was I hopeless romantic. I’ve never seen Gray
sweat so much in my life and of course my dad didn’t say yes, but hey he didn’t
say no. Secretly, I still am a hopeless romantic and I can’t think of anything
more attractive than a man asking your dad for your hand in marriage. That
takes balls. The day of our wedding, the
magistrate had a white and blue seersucker suit and we so young, dumb, and in
love. I wore a blue floral tube top dress, secretly, I still have it. Even though it wasn’t anything fancy, I
couldn’t imagine getting rid of it. It
was my wedding dress. We didn’t even know that we had to bring our own
witnesses to get married so we had the clerk of court and off duty jailor be
our witnesses. So romantic, I know! I remember that I made Gray promise not to
tell anyone we had got married before our actual wedding day. Anyone I that
knows Gray knows that he can’t keep a secret, apparently everyone except me. Of
course he told everyone and I was forced to tell my dad.
We submitted our
marriage license and began getting ready for the big move to California. Boy
was I scare. I had not a clue anything about being a military wife. I had never been anywhere like that before. The thought of moving gave me culture shock.
A few weeks later we had some good news. We wouldn’t be moving. Who knew the
military was low on money and couldn’t afford to move couples? Score! We got to
stay in NC. That November we had the wedding
I always wanted with all of our close friends and family. It was absolutely perfect and stressful, but
beautiful. That weekend we took our first trip to Charleston. Oh my gosh. It
was just like a fairytale. I fell in
love all over again. We were able to live like a queen and king that weekend. That was hands down the best weekend of my
life. We received breakfast in bed every
day and the valet made our reservations for dinner each night. Before bed, we went downstairs for milk and
cookies, my favorite. I wish I could
relive that weekend every day for the rest of my life. It was magical. I smile just thinking about it. I remember Gray wearing a robe and pretending
to be Hugh Heffner. Those were the days.
Soon, we
returned to reality and began moving into our first home, a beautiful apartment. Did I mention Gray literally signed the lease
on our apartment the week we got married? Yes, that happened. We literally
owned nothing so went shopping…at my dad’s house. The weekend of Thanksgiving, we moved and the
next week I went back to school to finish my exams. I remember sitting in my exam and getting a
text from Gray. This text changed my
life. He said you want believe what I’m
about to tell you. I already knew what the was about to say, I replied with an
answer to his question. You’re going to Afghanistan. He asked me “how did you
know?” I don’t know how, but I just knew.
My heart sank into my chest.
To be continued...
