Taking courage from Cecil, I joined a health club.  This time, I wanted the kind of man where I didn’t have to do all the work of maintaining the union.  There was a man who appeared only in the Jacuzzi.  He was  older, tall and magnificent.  One day he jumped off the jet, strode across to me, put out his hand and said, “How do you do?  My name is Ted Nichols.”  Later we went into the swimming pool together and when we got there he suggested that we go out together sometime.  I was scared, and I said, “I’m pretty busy.” Because even though I was old and went around the globe I didn’t know how to respond to a strange man.  Then he didn’t come back again.  I looked for him every single day.  I made up my mind that if I ever saw him again I would be more forthcoming.  About a month later he appeared in the Jacuzzi.  Immediately I greeted him and he suggested that we go out to dinner. We did that very same night.

 

After a while he suggested that we take an apartment together.  He took me to see a cluster of apartment buildings across from Lake Merced.  It had swimming pool, a Jacuzzi and a health club.  We took it on sight, moved in, and accommodated to each other and our new apartment.  One evening, about three weeks after we moved in, I was alone in my car coming home. This was the first time at night.  The road turned left and in the nighttime I could see lights far way across the lake.  The road continued to turn even more left and now I could see other lights on the right across the lake.   The road turned even more left and then I saw a cluster of lights on the left and I recognized the place where we had our apartment.  I was shocked.  That is precisely where the four men carrying me in the sedan chair stopped and where I got out there!  I had not seen the landscape at night until now!  So my out-of-body experience foretold where I would be.

 

I related his story in my book, The Human Thread a novel in three parts; read in any order: Jeannie’s Story, Tom’s Story, The Victors.  It is a story of two people, a young girl and a young man both from completely different destructive, indeed vicious, backgrounds.  Both were fearful of  involvement.  They liberated each other to a joyous future together.  All copies are sold out now.  I  will issue it as an eBook, title Breaking Free.