9/11 Short Stories

Their journey together began when these two cliché soul mates met in a bar. According to Mr. Mike, this is “Where you should always meet your future husband or wife”. (He said this jokingly.) The way they met was kind of a funny story. One of Mr. Mike’s friends wanted him and this girl that is best friends with his wife to meet. They were never actually set up on a blind date, but they were conveniently at the same place at the same time. Mr. Mike saw her across the bar, and after one look, he knew he had to meet her. Therefore, he walked up right to her, and started to talk to her. (He did recall, he had a few before he did this.) Somehow, by the end of the night, he had gotten her number, and called her the next day or two. One could say

Jeannette tells the same story, but it had some different elements to it. When she walked into the bar, their mutual friend wanted to set her up with another guy, but she didn’t like him. “He just wasn’t my type”, she blunted stated. Then, Mr. Mike walked up to her and asked for her number, and she gave it to him. “I thought he was cute, so I gave him a chance”, she said in that heavy Arkansas accent of hers. He called her the next day, and she went out with him. They started dating, but she didn’t like that he smoked. She almost broke up with because of it, but she is glad she didn’t. Mr. Mike took her on dates, and he taught her about the culture down here. Basically, he showed her what it meant to be a bayou girl. On their first date, he brought her to a la boucherie (where they roast a pig). “It was interesting and kinda strange. I have never experienced anything like that before, and it was a culture shock”, she explained. He also taught her to fish and hunt, which are things that she had never done before. When Mrs. Jeannette attended her first Mardi Gras parade, she experienced major culture

She was the one who made sure the children would go to church on Sundays, so it only made sense to let her choose the church she would want to practice in. Mrs. Jeannette was grateful that he gave on this issue. When times got difficult, I asked them what is their couple secret to success when times like these happened. They both answered understanding, pushing through when the going gets tough, compromise, date nights, and not playing the “you owe me” game. “When you’re a parent, you don’t have time to be tired. When one of us gets home before the other, we pick up where the other left off. For example, if I left dishes in the sink, when Mike gets home, he washes them. There is no time to be “tired”. You got to just push through it to get the job done”, Mrs. Jeannette explained. “And when the other cannot get to something and the other one has to do it. We don’t play the “you owe me” game and have to make up for it. That is where most couples go wrong at today”, added Mr. Mike. They also revealed that no “job” or “chore” is gender specific. For example, doing laundry or cleaning isn’t just a woman’s job. They split the household tasks as evenly as possible, but even if they can’t, that is okay too. It all works