October 18th marks 27 happy years of marriage for me.  It easily might not have been, had my father-in-law carried out his reported threat to kill his daughter and I were we to marry.  He didn’t of course.  Did he really mean it?  I don’t know, but Juanita thought him capable of it.  We had no choice but to take him at his word; it would have been foolish to do otherwise.  As it turned out, his threat and our response to it was what secured our future happiness.  What greater motivation to practice your religion seriously than a bona fide fear of imminent death?  Consequently, we accepted the challenge of overcoming his animosity and prayed daily for his happiness.  As a result, he did in fact become happy.  For more details, read my book, Waiting for Westmoreland.  Despite the title, it is not primarily a book about Vietnam or life in the military–although those certainly are important parts of the memoir.