Vern Watson
A number of years ago, in 2017, my wife, Denise, and I celebrated our fiftieth wedding anniversary. Unlike many folks, we didn’t go to Hawaii or on a European trip or anything like that. For one reason, we couldn’t make plans well in advance. Though it was a milestone that few make in life, we had family obligations that for us outweighed our celebration.Denise’s mother was ill, and my mother was already in hospice care. We had no way of knowing how long that was going to last, so we just lived our lives a day at a time as we always have. They were both among the most important people on this earth to us along with our children. We couldn’t make plans to leave them behind and celebrate, and so we didn’t.Then a little more than two weeks before our fiftieth wedding anniversary, my mother passed, and our kids began to encourage us to go somewhere special. We gave it thought, and Denise’s family reunion was going to be right at the time we would be gone on our excursion if we left for our anniversary.So we waited until the day of the family reunion of my wife, Denise, before deciding where we were going with no reservations made. With I believe inspiration from above, we made our plan and left the day after Denise’s family reunion. We were going to return to all the sights where we lived, worked, learned, and grew together over the years of our marriage.Our children helped us make reservations while we were still at the family reunion. We were headed for Greenville, South Carolina, to go back to the courthouse, where we were married fifty years ago, to see where we started and where the journey had begun. After arriving that night, we stayed just above the South Carolina line in North Carolina. The next morning, we headed for Greenville, and then we went on down to Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina, and watched the total eclipse of the sun. It was an amazing sight to see and so fitting for our journey together. That was August 21, 2017.When we returned home, I wanted to go back to where I had grown up as a child, and we went to a church on Fourteenth Street in Detroit for the services there. When we left the parking lot that day, I came up to the traffic light and looked across the street, and in the distance I saw Michigan Central Station. It was where I started this journey when I arrived in the state of Michigan when I was five years old and homeless.I decided as I looked at that site this is my life, and this will be my book. It is an amazing story and must be told. It is against the odds.
