Our Children in the Eighties (2)

 Elliott After College

After he graduated from ACU,  Elliott entered the United States Army as a Second Lieutenant, and was stationed at Fort Bliss.   While he was there, he told us there was a special lady in his life.  Her name was Melanie Jennings and she had been in the theater productions with him at ACU.  Melanie had graduated and was then living in Nashville.  Upon completion of his training at Fort Bliss, Elliott was assigned to a military installation in Budingen, Germany. 

He came by Cedar Rapids to visit us before going overseas, and then drove to Charleston, South Carolina where embarked for Europe.  On the way he spent a few days in Nashville, and proposed to Melanie.

They were planning to get married the following December in Nashville, but then a legal problem arose.  They learned that Melanie would not be able to go to Germany immediately.  It would take some time to process things.  So they planned to fly Melanie over to Germany for a civil wedding ceremony.  They discovered they could make necessary arrangements in Denmark and become legal husband and wife that way.  Things went according to plan, but there was one part of the plan they hadn’t counted on.  Within a few weeks Melanie learned that she was pregnant.

I remember coming home from the office and walking up the stairs from our den to the upper living area of our house.   I was standing on the second step from the top, when Ann told me that I was about to become a grandfather. I immediately sat down.  It was a lot to take in.

 

We had met Melanie just briefly while she was a student at ACU.   We had not met her family, although I did remember her father, Jerry, from my student days.  Jerry and I didn’t know each other when we were students.  He had the lead in the school opera, so I knew about him.  His wife, Nancy, had gone to Lipscomb, so I didn’t know her.

We went to Nashville and spent a few days getting acquainted with Melanie, her  family and friends.  Jerry took us canoeing on the Harpeth River.  We had a wonderful time.  I still remember him bursting out in operatic song as we glided across the water.  I will never forget one thing that Jerry said to me on that trip. We had attended church with them, and I was asked to lead the closing prayer.  As I stepped off the platform, Jerry met me and gave me a big bear hug.  He said, “In the things that matter most, we are one.”   And so it is.   Our lives have been closely entwined with the Jennings and their extended family ever since.