Getting married always brings about changes that we do not foresee and expect. This was no exception for me.
I had not planned on getting married. Passing 30, I was very happy having dedicated my life to caring for the elderly. A nurse practitioner, I had spent a decade easing suffering for terminally ill and people simply too old to care for themselves.
It was while caring for a woman in this condition that I fell in love with her entire family. She had twin grandsons who are extremely handsome, driving the girls crazy their first semester in college. It was they who introduced me to their father, pushing him to take out the "Hottie Doctor".
This gentleman, their father, my patient's son, and now my husband has been the kindest man I have ever met. My love and adoration for him was what pulled me away from my position at the extended stay center. He lived too far away for me to commute. I told myself that I could always find a comparable position closer to my home and family. This could be done at my leisure as finances were well taken care by my husband's income.
In his kindness, he takes closely after his father, who this story is about. Hank is a combat veteran of the Marine Corp. He is a devoted family man, appreciates women, and knows how to care for them. Truly loving his wife, was all that kept Hank away from the hundreds of women who threw themselves at him. His great love for his wife made her passing very difficult for all of us and it seemed to crush him.
Hank, who was as mentally fit as he was physically, began taking little vacations from reality after his wife's death. This worried me as a medical professional, and worried me as his new Daughter In-Law. His "escape" was becoming clinical dementia. He would need full time care soon.
For this reason, I suggested that Hank move into our home. I was after all a qualified professional who was looking for a job. My husband teased me that I was insatiable; "Am I and my two college age sons not enough MAN for you?"
He was certainly man enough, and his son's drove me crazy with their flirting. I was completely shocked the first time that the boys asked me if I planned on breast feeding my new sons. But I digress; they will be addressed in chapter two.
I was pretty sure that Grandpa would be easy for me to handle. I had enjoyed many elderly men's flirting. Being rather curvy, I reminded them of the pin-ups they had during world war II.
Hank was no exception: He called me Marilyn, of course after the "Some Like It Hot" actress. His deceased wife he called Betti, after Miss Page, the "Queen of Pin-Ups". I was a bit jealous, I would have preferred it the other way around, but she did look like Betti and he was not the first to dub me Marilyn.
Come moving day, Hank paid special attention to his military footlocker. While I unpacked the rest of his items, he arranged the locker properly at the foot of his bed. He then extracted from it his prized possessions. First to appear from the trunk was a picture of his wife, young and beautiful. Her pose was imitating the original classic pin-up of Betty Grable, clad in a tight swimsuit looking over her shoulder sexily. Truth be known, his wife was even sexier than Grable. The next two items, which he hung on the wall, were a matching set of posters, Betti Page and Marilyn Monroe.