“Reflections ~ 50 Years of Marriage” began on December 20, 2025 — not as a single story, but as the unfolding of many stories woven together over half a century.
It started quietly, the way most sacred things do. A date on the calendar. A pause in the rhythm of life. A moment to look back at the road two people walked together — sometimes hand‑in‑hand, sometimes with one pulling the other forward, sometimes with both simply holding on through the storm.
Fifty years is not just time. It is seasons. It is chapters. It is the soft accumulation of ordinary days that somehow become extraordinary when shared with someone who chooses you again and again.
As the reflections began, memories rose like lanterns in the dusk — the early days filled with hope and uncertainty, the middle years shaped by work, children, responsibilities, and the quiet negotiations of love, and the later years marked by deeper understanding, gentler laughter, and the kind of companionship that only grows when two hearts refuse to give up on each other.
This series became a way to honor the journey:
- the victories that felt small at the time but mattered deeply
- the challenges that tested the foundation but never broke it
- the lessons learned not from perfection, but from persistence
- the grace extended, received, and extended again
And beneath it all, a truth that time has only made clearer: Love is not something you arrive at — it is something you build, one choice at a time.
December 20, 2025 was simply the day the storytelling began. But the story itself? It has been in the making for fifty years. And beneath it all, a truth that time has only made clearer: Love is not something you arrive at — it is something you build, one choice at a time.
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On this day 50 years ago, my life changed forever ~ I married the man I fell in love with when I saw him standing at the back of Nellis Rd Baptist Church. He looked so handsome with a big grin across his face.
Let me back up a bit…on June 8 I graduated from Indio High School. Wait a minute, let me back up a bit more…In March of 1975 my mom decided to move to Las Vegas, NV to work and live near our friend Mary and her family. I had my first panic attack when I heard that news…three months from graduation and she wanted me to have to change schools AGAIN! I can’t, I can’t, I can’t I kept repeating over and over. And I cried and cried. I cried on my Grandpa’s shoulder, I cried on my French teachers shoulder and I just cried.
Just before my mom was actually going to move my Grandpa said he would stay in Indio and I could live with him ~ oh thank you God!!! And I meant it!
As I mentioned above. I graduated on June 8, 1975. On June 9th my family gathered for dinner ~ I prayed that morning for Poppa God to keep the fighting at a minimum. It seemed every time my parents were in the same room for more than 15 minutes one of them would say something to set the other one off. I remember telling my Dad, outside of the restaurant “Dad IF you start yelling, fighting or making rude remarks I will get up and walk out.” I had told my Mom that morning basically the same thing – if she started yelling, cussing, fighting or saying derogatory things about my Dad I would get up and leave the restaurant. I’m not sure she believed me but my Dad said he would be good, he promised. I was surrounded by those who loved me: my Grandpa ~ oh the stories I could share of my relationship with him. Without a doubt I knew he loved me and he never stopped loving me until he died in 1982. Some days I still miss him so much, miss him telling me “Alice, you are a smart girl and don’t let anyone tell you any different.” Also around the table was my Dad, my younger sister, Joanie, my older sister, Kathy, my Mom and at the time someone I thought cared about me as much as I cared about him, Skylar. I was so wrong about him.
That night after dinner I went to his home and visited with his parents. They always welcomed me into their home. When it was time to leave, Sky walked me out the back door to the alley where my car was parked. I remember that night like it just happened ~ we were holding hands and I was telling him yes, I’m moving to Las Vegas but I would be coming back to Indio every couple of weeks (he had just finished his junior year in high school) until he graduated and then we would go to college together. I had received a scholarship to the University of Maryland but I still hadn’t decided if I was going to move across the whole US and be far, far away from those who loved me. And then he let go of my hand, stopped walking and said “when you walk out the gate, don’t come back.” And he turned and walked back to the house. I stood there dumbfounded, started to stutter and ask questions but he kept walking with his back to me. I stood there and cried for a few minutes and then Skylar came back out the door and said “Leave.” I felt like I had been hit by a truck and couldn’t believe what I had just been told. I walked out the back gate, the gate slamming shut so loud I thought I had broke it. I got into my car and sat there for a few more minutes when his mom came out and waved good-bye to me. I don’t know if she knew what Skylar had said to me or if she was just waving good-bye.
I remember walking into the motel room where my mom and sisters were staying and just saying “he told me to leave!” With more tears running down my face, my mom was my mom. She said “Alice go wash your face with cold water and get ready for bed, we have to leave early tomorrow to head back to Las Vegas.” That was the final curtain call of my senior year and the beginning of a new life. And being the good girl I was, I did what my Mom said to do.
A little back history ~ in May of that year, a friend from school, Royce Jones, invited me to Young Life. That night I accepted Jesus into my heart, again. I say again because when I was 12 I went to a little Assembly of God Church and I remember going to the altar and praying but at 12 I don’t think I really knew what it meant to ask Jesus into my heart. So on that night in May 1975 in a room filled with other high school students, I accepted Jesus into my heart. That was the first of many great decisions in this journey I call life.
On the morning of June 10th I cried to Poppa God…what was I going to do, I was getting ready to go to Las Vegas. How was I going to survive without Skylar? He had been my rock the August before when I had to have my left eye removed. Even though I had known for six years that day would come, it was still a shock. The morning I went in for surgery, Skylar told me not to worry, he would be with me and he loved me before I had my eye removed and he would love me after. I cried as I thought of that and told myself, “just like every other person but my Grandpa, he had lied to me.”
As the trip to Las Vegas began I found myself singing praise songs and asking Poppa God to help me as I started another new chapter/journey in my life. I was raised ~ if I couldn’t take care of myself it was okay because I could just get married and let the man take care of me. I prayed I would find a job, that I could find a good church and a new boyfriend. One that would truly love me for me and not hurt me the way all the other men in my life had treated me. I told myself if I got married, I would not have to live at home anymore. (Even then I was an all or nothing kind of thinker. I had some specific requirements ~ he had to be taller than me. Ron is 5’10”. And he had to have a great smile. Ron does. He had to have a job ~ I didn’t want to marry a bum. He did ~ he was in the US Air Force. But most importantly he had to love Jesus. And he did then and still does to this day. So I prayed, I prayed every night as I went to bed.
After being in Las Vegas for a couple of weeks I decided it was time to find a church. So I started calling around to different churches. I had my questions ready:
- How many people attend Sunday services ~ I didn’t want a large church where I would get swallowed up and not be seen by anyone.
- Did they have a Wednesday night service ~ these were usually singing and prayer meetings.
- And the most important question ~ Did they have any young men attending there?
The first couple of churches had 100+ people attending ~ that seemed too big for me. But the third church I hit pay dirt! They had 20 to 40 people attend on Sunday mornings. They had both a Sunday evening and Wednesday night meeting. And they had THREE young men.
After the lecture of “young lady you need to go to church for the Lord,” which was said to me in every way possible up one side and down the other side and a few more times just for the principal of it. I told the lady who answered the phone (I found out later she was the pastor’s wife) that I did go to church for God but God wasn’t going to put me in a church that didn’t have any young men! She finally said, “yes, we have three young men: one who was 17, one who was 19 and one 21.” Oh how my heart fluttered thinking about a man of 21!!! The 17 year old was the same age I was and no way was I going through that again I and so with that I went to church on June 22nd expecting to meet and like the 21 year old.
Well to my surprise the 21 year old walked in with a girlfriend and the 17 year old was definitely too young as he was going into the 12th grade the next September. We laughingly say now, “Ron was the leftover.” I don’t remember much of that morning but I do remember him saying HI. I felt comfortable at the church and planned to go back that Sunday night. One of the gal’s that went there asked me my name and phone number so we could connect. I willingly gave it to her as I really wanted and needed to make new friends. I found out later that Ron had memorized my number as I shared it with Tammy.
Sunday evening when I went back to church, Tammy asked me if I wanted to come over after church for dessert and to play a game. Sure!! My memory is a little fuzzy about that evening (I can’t remember if the following incident happened that night or the next week) when Tammy and I drove past Ron stopped on the side of the road by a cop and we laughed and joked with our windows rolled down and kept on going. Once Ron arrived at the house he told me “he saved me from a ticket.” What was he talking about – well the rear right tail light was out and the cop said “I have to go and give that person a ticket for no taillight.” Ron asked him not to and he said he would fix it for me. When he got to the house and we were teasing him, he shared what the cop had said. He kept his word as he and Gary (Tammy’s dad) fixed it by putting red construction paper between the bulb and broken glass. We laugh a lot about that night because I had never had a ticket and I like to remind Ron I still have never received a ticket. He does though like to say I sure deserved some!
From that day forward we either talked to or saw each other every day. Our first real date, Ron took me to a carnival. He likes to say I pulled a big one on him as I only spent 10 It was one of those games where you toss a dime and I won a small ashtray which I gave to my Mom. Ron likes to say from that day forward I had no problems spending his money. One month later, we found ourselves having a picnic at a park and Ron asked me a big question…
Ali ~ Authentic & Ameliorating 
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