You may say it was a lucky coincidence, a chance, a fluke... Perhaps...
Yet, looking back on everything that conspired, I am becoming increasingly convinced that certain predispositions did indeed take place at the time...
So, what was the time? - You would ask.
It was the summer of 1975. Many of my close friends left the country and emigrated, some to the USA, but most to Israel. I, however, convinced myself that “my way” is to stay and to do something to change my country for the better, rather than to change the place of my existence for a better life.
It seems I did well for myself back then. I had loving and caring parents and grandparents. It was a luxury that some of my friends didn’t have. I had a very large and very intelligent dog. A dog whose all-the-time company made my persona uniquely known in town. I enjoyed the notoriety. Friends respected me for my wit and humor, as well as for my allegiance. I graduated from the university. I had a good engineering job. Therefore, I finally had money that I earned rather than an allowance given to me by my parents.
Seemed like my life finally got to the routine course, but was it?
I share a very tiny room with my dog at my parents’ apartment. An apartment that my parents share with 5 other families. Each was assigned in a different adjacent room with a communal kitchen and bathroom. So much for the privacy.
My job didn’t engage me. It was boring and not challenging enough. I liked the theater. I was involved in a few local public productions and some secondary crowd scenes at the movie studios. But all that was very occasional.
My personal life was in shambles. Every new relationship ended up as quickly as it started, yet I was convinced myself that this was exactly what I wanted.
I spent my evenings partying with friends. I was a part of many groups, but couldn’t find the one that I liked the most.
Once, I met a guy who was convinced that he knew “my sister.” He was telling me that “she actually got my last name and even looked like me.” In return, I told him that “it was impossible, that I was the only child my parents ever had”.
He was asking me if I was sure of it.
I wasn’t anymore.
Perhaps we drank too much that evening.
The next day, I called him to ask what he was talking about last night.
He told me about the girl who was his classmate some years ago during middle school. He even said that somewhere he had a photo of that girl, the one with my last name. I got curious. He found that girl’s picture and gave it to me.
It was our Mom’s old eighth-grade graduation photo.
I saw a young girl with very big eyes, and there was a deep sadness in them.
Yuri, it was the name of my new friend, managed to get me “that girl’s” phone number, and I called her.
I called her quickly and convinced her to meet me the next day to talk about our common last name.
I didn’t know, however, that it was Yuri who called Mom first and asked her permission to share a phone number with me. I didn’t know that as I called Mom, she was in the company of her best friend, who convinced her to accept my invitation because Mom was upset that day and didn’t want anybody to see her. She herself was heartbroken at the time. But I didn’t know that.
After the phone conversation, I went back home, totally submersed in my thoughts. There was something in Mom’s voice that made her special, something in her eyes on the old photograph...
Come on! Stop that, -- I was telling myself.
Yet my thoughts inadvertently run me ahead toward something entirely unexpected.
She is “The One”, -- My internal voice was telling me repeatedly.
I didn’t know if it was a premonition of sorts. I couldn’t realize it then.
I came home.
I walked through the kitchen full of neighbors cooking their food and gossiping, all in the same pot together.
I walked into my room and checked on my dog, who was always happy to see me.
I took Mom’s photo and put it on my desk.
My mother came to check on me and to wish me a good night. She noticed the photo and asked me who it was.
That is my wife-to-be, -- I said.
Good night, - replied my mother and left my room smiling.
Why did I say such nonsense? -- I thought and lay myself in bed.
My dog was breathing heavily, lying on the floor next to my sofa. Perhaps he already felt forthcoming changes in his life.
The next evening after work, I stopped at my friend’s apartment to personally thank Yuri for the phone number and proceeded to the place of our first date with Mom. The place was short of being romantic by any stretch of the imagination. We agreed to meet at the trolley stop across from the fish store.
The day was Thursday, June 12, 1975.
I decided to buy some flowers and stopped at the street corner where the flower ladies usually sold some flower bouquets. Unfortunately, it was the end of the day, and no one had any flowers left. Only one flower lady, who was already a bit drunk, offered me some leftover daisies.
I came to the trolley stop ahead of time, but Mom was a few minutes late.
In fact, it wasn’t a few. It was to the point I was afraid to be stood up.
I didn’t really know what mom looked like. Her photo was old, and she definitely grew up. Yet I recognized her right away. She wore a pair of bell-bottom navy blue pants and a striped shirt. Her hair was tight in a ponytail, and her eyes... Those big eyes brought me right away.
We spent the whole evening walking and talking. We didn’t even go to any café for a usual cup of coffee. I walked her home. We said goodbye. And we agreed to meet again sometime, not setting any time for certain.
I walked home slowly afterward. I didn’t take the usual taxi. Everything about Mom was different. I couldn’t recognize what it was, but it was easy and I certainly liked her.
The next day after work, I called a friend of mine, and we went for a usual Friday night city stroll. We walked down the center street and bumped head to head to Mom and her friend. She was with the same girl who told Mom to accept my invitation a day before. We spent the entire evening together, but in the end agreed not to meet on Saturday. That was Grandpa’s birthday, and the whole mom’s family was getting together to celebrate. Understandably, I wasn’t part of the Family, not yet.
Saturday was the third day since mom and I met, and surprisingly, I bumped into the mom and her friend again that day. The grandpa’s birthday party was too boring for the girls, and they decided to leave and go to the city.
We had a good time walking around and decided to go to the beach together on the next day, Sunday.
Sunday morning, I was waiting for Mom at Riga’s railroad station.
Mom was a bit late, and I was waiting for her, smoking one cigarette after another. I didn’t know that Mom actually came with her mother and showed me to her from a distance. She introduced me to her as a new boy she met. And her mother liked me.
We had a wonderful time at the beach with a big company of friends.
At some point, one guy came to Mom and reminded her that he still had the book he borrowed the other day, asking for an opportunity to return it.
You can keep it, I don’t care, - Mom replied.
And it was a wonderful sign for me.
Later, a friend asked me who that cute girl was, the one in the green swimsuit in my company. And for the first time, I introduced Mom as my girlfriend.
And yes, we met again on Monday and on the next day again.
It was Tuesday, our fifth date, and I took Mom to the popular jazz café “Allegro” for the date.
We listened to music, we danced, we drank dark coffee with sweet liquor, and we had a delightful time. In the middle of the evening, I went down to the stage to talk to my friends who played that night.
I didn’t know that some man approached Mom and asked her if she was with me. She confirmed.
Keep him. He is a very good people. -- the man said and left.
To this day, I have no idea who was he.
At the café, I looked at the surrounding crowd. Hands down, it was my crowd. Everyone had a good time, and everyone looked very cool. Yet, saw Mom, and she stood up in that crowd for me. There was something about her that made her very special to me.
I walked her home afterward. We walked through the medieval streets of the old town of Riga. We crossed the bridge over the canal. It was a very warm June night. The night when it is never gets really dark. Just a romantic twilight.
You know, - I blurted. - I want you to be my wife... I want you and I to be inseparable together forever, time and again, endlessly. And I want you to say, I do too...
I do... - Mom whispered.
It was our fifth day and a fifth date, and we have been inseparable ever since.
But you know that already,
certainly. And now you know how it all began.
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