My Husband, My Prince

Thirty-two years ago I became the wife of a prince!  He didn't start out a prince, however.  He started out as a Jimmy.... It is a good thing for him that my mom liked him. Here's why:

Long ago, when I was young and impressionable, my mom, bless her heart, told me that all Jimmy's were bad boys.  I think she said this when the boy who lived behind us was suspected of throwing dirt over the fence into our pool!

I'M PRETTY SURE  this tale was passed on to me before Kindergarten, where I met the man I would marry!

 NO... I didn't "like" him in kindergarten.  In fact, he married someone else at five.  You see, he played Joseph in the school Nativity play.  Jim still remembers the name of the girl who played Mary.  Probably because he had a crush on her !

But then  again, my prince has a great memory for names.  He remembers the full name of everyone  in our fourth grade class. (Proof...I had Jim label this pic a few months ago.) I did not like him in 4th grade.  And Jim didn't "like," me.  He liked Penny Stamp.  I'm pretty sure all the boys liked her! I didn't even "like" him in eighth grade Spanish class; I was too busy listening to the endless jokes of the other boys in the class; Jim was quiet.

AND when Jim's girlfriend strode into 10th grade Social Studies class, smiling, and singing, "I'm dating Jim Neville... la la la..." I was not aware that Gail was in love with my prince! I didn't know much in 10th grade!  What I DID "know" was wrong...namely, ...all Jimmys were bad. (It turns out, my Mom wasn't always right...but sometimes she was more right than she knew!  To find out why, read on.)

Fast forward.

Almost daily, my prince tells me that I'm his favorite wife so far.  This is funny to him...(still a little Jimmy left at 55.)   Although I have stopped reminding Jim that I am his only wife, so far,  I have learned to feel blessed when he says this very romantic thing!  After all, he married the mother of Jesus in Kindergarten, remember?

Jim was God's choice for me instead of Ann Mumma (the one who played Mary) But I did not see it coming.

I was NOT looking!

When Jim and I "met" as teenagers...at a bar (another story) we had just ended relationships with other very lovely people.  Jim asked me and my dear friend, Rena to the art gallery. We were not going to go. THEN MY MOTHER SAID,

"You should go, who knows, this might be the most important day of your life!"  

A true statement!  It's a good thing that I was listening to her advice at this point in life!

After several more "dates," where Jim asked me out with other friends, I discovered he was pursuing me!  (Girls can be so blind!)

Long story short...God had made this Jimmy for me and I eventually discovered why.

(But he wasn't a prince yet!  Many years later he became a prince when he asked our Heavenly Father to forgive him for everything he did while he was a Jimmy! )

He married" his first wife" in my mother's church on October, 6th 1979.  I giggled at the altar, standing between Rena, the friend who went to the art gallery with us, and the man who would become the father of our four girls.

October 6, 2011, 32 years after I married James Michael Neville,  I am the happy, loved, favorite wife of a prince, my classmate, my friend, the one who makes me laugh, my business partner, the father of our four daughters...

...the love of my life
...so far!

Sorry Jimmy, I couldn't resist that one :)


Love, 
Becky