Ruth Koda:  

I left Kalamazoo in August 1968 and headed for Virginia Beach Virginia where my brother was stationed in the Navy. He returned home in January 69 - I stayed - I had fallen in love with the ocean beaches - and all that comes with it! I worked as an account executive for Ticketron- I covered the major arenas in Virginia. On 2/10/73 I met the love of my life - I just didn't know it at the time. He breezed in from New York corporate offices. It was a Saturday - we had a meeting to go over our project - the first thing he said after hello - was "make us a pot of coffee" I was offended, I was a professional - I thought he specifically asked me because I was the only woman! We were scheduled to work all weekend - even late evenings.....well I receive a call from the apt manager asking if they could let my parents into my apartment! I had no idea they were in the area. We ended up moving our work session to my home. Mom took an immediate dislike to Chet - he was tall - quarter back type from New York - rude - overbearing and afterall he was making her little girl work all night and all weekend while her parents were there visiting! We accomplished our mission for the first phase of computerizing the Virginia state parks reservations. Chet returned to New York - On 2/14/73 I received an anonomous flower delivery for valentines day ---a "funeral arrangement" - complete with stand! I had no idea who was trying to send me a message - nor what the message was... As it turns out Chet had sent me flowers to apologize for working me so hard while my parents were in town - when the florist told him they did not have the flowers he ordered - he told them to just send the biggest and most beautiful arrangement they could. I guess that was their most expensive anyway!(most explensive is not always the best choice!)Later - this would become a private joke between us - I would send him a funeral arrangement on this anniversary. We c...Expand for more