Tim and I met at the restaurant I worked for (DUH) at a time when I was dating a guy fourteen years older than me. Thank the Lord I met Tim or I wouldn't be able to work as much as I do now...all my time would be spent pushing around a wheel chair and screaming into his"Miracle Ear."
I still scream at Tim from time to time (maybe a little more often) but you know what? I made a good choice when I married him and wouldn't change a thing...except maybe the balance in my checking account. We bank separately...he banks wisely and I throw the dice and holler "Come on lucky seven!" It rarely works but I have honed my skills down to a science and can beat a check to the bank like nobodies bid-ness.
We started out broke. I was a waitress in a pizza joint he hung out in with his co workers after work and he was working for Safety Kleen. I moved up to manager and he started a long career with Engelman's Bakery. We built up our credit and had a pretty nice house in the southern tip of Jonesboro a block outside of Henry county. TJ was two when I met Tim and I fell in love with the kid. I liked being a step mom and it didn't leave any stretch marks. I've had TJ longer than I have had Zach or Massey and he will always be my oldest child.
In the Fall of 1991 Tim and I went to Jamaica and I forgot my birth control pills. In 1992 Zach came into our lives. He wasn't planned but was a pleasure. He didn't leave stretch marks either but I gained seventy pounds and ate Little Debbie Swiss Rolls every day washing them down with a giant sized Ice-ee . Maybe that's where all my energy comes from...residual chocolate and caffeine effect.
Tim was making pretty good money when we had another "Oopsy."
By then I was thirty five and had to have an Amnio. I was told the baby was a girl and I may have complications...Boy was THAT an understatement!
I was elated to be having a girl and had already decided to name her Massey...my mother's maiden name. My Momma died when I was seventeen and I STILL haven't totally gotten over it, but having a girl gave me a reason to at least honor her one more time. My due date was even my Mother's birthday ...October fifth!
It was a hard pregnancy...I was on complete bed rest from the beginning of June. Massey ruptured my placenta in the early morning hours of August nineteenth and entered this world on the same day my Mother left it. She didn't make it til my Mommas birthday but replaced the day my Momma died with her arrival into this world and our lives. Tiny she was...just barely four pounds.
She blossomed like a rose and we were now a family of five.
Life was good. Tim started a new job with great pay and we moved to our first brand new home in Coweta County. TJ moved in with us soon after and the American dream was happening for us.
Life went on without skipping a beat , TJ graduated from high school, I was working for a big corporate restaurant and everything was great.
Then Tim took a gamble and went into business with a couple of guys. Sounded great but in hindsight "If it sounds too good to be true... Blah blah blah"
We hit the bottom so hard it felt like my front teeth had been knocked out. The economy tanked shortly thereafter and he was out of work for over a year. We had thousands of dollars saved up in his 401K and went through them in less than six months to pay our bills. My big bad corporate restaurant fired me for giving Massey a free dessert when she came into the store with some of her friends and now we were both unemployed.
My God, family and friends kept us afloat. My friend got Tim a job stocking shelves overnight at WalMart and when he got off every morning headed to his second job parking cars at an auto auction.
People POURED their love upon us. I got gift cards in the mail, anonymous letters with cash and people dropping by to bring food. Friends bought Massey a Letterman jacket she desperately wanted (Dee's the woman!) A member of Fayetteville First Methodist church paid to have our septic tank pumped and somehow we made it through.
Two years later we are still playing catch up...but catching up we are. I pay it forward every single time I can.
I see Tim awake and face to face maybe two times a week. He works days and I work all the time. After two years he has gotten a job that has great potential for advancement and is paying the bills.
How he has stayed with ME is still a mystery. I am a firecracker. I am always popping but once every couple of weeks I am a dud and have to decompress and step away from life, kids and sleep for twelve hours and he lets me.
It hasn't been the dream I thought it would be...but isn't that why they are called dreams?
I married Tim because I loved him and over two decades later I still do. He still has great legs.
I Love You Tim Cotton..(True THAT)
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