Jeff Klinkenberg, I swear I could read you all day and head to supper still wanting more. You bring such dignity to hidden lives. From Jeffs Tampa Bay Times story titled, The Last Martin of Gilchrist County: When [Nathan Martin] was 17 he enlisted in the Navy during the Vietnam War and spent time in Europe, saved his money and made loans to city-boy sailors who had lost their pay playing poker aboard ship. Europe, especially the Netherlands, had some interesting beer, but after he returned to Florida he found no reason to leave. He has never visited Miami or seen Cinderellas Castle. I dont like what Ive heard about Orlando. Too many people, he says. He married young. He was 21. Sherry was 16. She was a pretty girl whose medical condition prevented getting pregnant. It was okay with Nathan. He loved her. Eight years later, she told him, Nathan, youre too country. After the divorce, he went a little wild, drank a little too much, loved a few too many women. He turned his car over once, took a good look at himself, settled down. He thought about Vida Cannon. She was thinking about him, too. He had known Vida when she was a girl. While he was dating her best friend he had his eye on her. They ended up marrying other people. Decades passed by. Her marriage went bad too. She saw him once in a while in town. He was still hunky. He was still nice. She got in touch with him. They have been together 22 years. People who know her sometimes wonder how it can be so. Nathan has wonderful qualities, but he is rough under the collar. She is beautiful at 65, refined, God-fearing and lives in a real house with air-conditioning and television. But she appreciates his intelligence and the fact that he can fix anything. He worked for a half century in the timber business and at the county roads department and has money in the bank. But mostly she is moved by his kindness. I dont think Nathan has an enemy in this world, she says. Fourteen years ago, they married. There is some controversy about who popped the question. Nathan claims it was him — he was standing in the parlor outside the bathroom — but Vida shakes her head. She recollects that it was she who lit a fire under him. They live apart except on weekends. Vida sometimes visits Nathans property during the winter when the mosquitoes and the chiggers are not biting, but she has never entered his run-down house. She is afraid of what she might see, including a bathroom without a sink or a toilet. She is an indoor plumbing kind of gal. Be sure to watch the video by Melissa Lyttle, too. Great work, both of you.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 19:14:33 +0000
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