I saw Kathy Nunnally teaching at a children’s meeting at Church. She was in her natural element, guiding children. I could not take my eyes off her and knew I wanted to get to know her better. After the meetings, I found her as quickly as I could. We spoke briefly, and I asked her to see the movie “Fiddler on the Roof” with me. (I didn’t know that she had just seen the movie two days earlier.) But she said, “Yes.” That Friday, when she took my hand during the movie, I knew I wanted it there forever. Immediately it seemed like I had known her for a lifetime. She seemed to belong at my side. A few days later, another young adult activity was held at Recreation Park in Long Beach. I didn’t know the name of the park, Recreation Park, so I asked Kathy to ride with me and show me where it was. (Kathy has a different version of this story. She claims this was my plot to get her to ride with me. But, if her version puts her with me in the car, so be it.) We never found the activity; instead, we talked at the beach while sitting in my vehicle. After a few more dates, I proposed to her, though she wasn’t thinking about marriage this early in our relationship. She thought about my proposal for a week, then said, “Yes”. I had no idea then the great woman Kathy would become. She has never nagged or pressured me into change. She has simply deserved my best. Kathy has always been fun and playful while getting life’s difficult jobs done.

Kathy and I were committed to our faith, and we knew the only place to be married was in the temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There is no “until death do us part” there. We wanted this for us, and we knew this was what the Lord wanted for us. A temple marriage requires a commitment to live the highest standards of our faith, meaning no physical intimacy until after marriage. Kathy was in her first year of teaching in an inner-city Los Angeles school. She couldn’t possibly add the challenges of a new marriage to her other demands, so we decided to wait until the end of the school year, eight months later. As we dated during that time we had to keep the goal of a temple marriage always in mind.

The covenants made in the temple have helped carry us through the difficult times that were to come. Our marriage commitment wasn’t just to try marriage out. It was a commitment for our whole lives and beyond into the eternal world. We have learned that problems are solvable if you care more about your partner than you do about the problem. Sometimes that means a win-win, sometimes compromise, sometimes you just agree to disagree. My expensive car spending caused Kathy to feel all the fun money was going my way. She brought it up and we resolved that for every dollar spent on a car another dollar would go into Kathy’s backyard. (She has a great backyard now.) We have had several times in our 50+ years together when we were unsure we could solve the problems. But we persisted and we communicated until we both agreed on a solution. My own discovery is that it is more fun to be focused on her happiness than on mine.

We were married on my dad’s sixty-sixth birthday, July 14, 1973.