My Valentine - Vi (Stark) Glickstein [Published in the February newsletter for Freedom Pointe Independent Living, The Villages, FL]
I first met Vi in 1962 when she was living with her parents and completing her Bachelors in Chemistry at Brooklyn College. I was working in New Jersey, spending most weekends with my parents in Brooklyn and pursuing my social life there.
We met on a double-date, Vi with a buddy of mine, and me with my girlfriend of the time. We met again when Vi set me up on a blind date with a friend of hers. Vi impressed me as being both attractive and intelligent, and I decide that I liked her better than either of the other two girls.
So, when my buddy went to California for the summer, I tried to call her, but her parent's number was unlisted. I remembered where we had picked her up on the double-date and wrote her a letter. Well, I got the street right, but was off on the house number. Fortunately, the letter carrier knew Vi's mother and delivered my letter. Vi wrote back, and the rest is history.
We married in 1964 and have been together 52 years, with three daughters and five grands to show for it.
I knew I loved Vi when I realized that, in addition to her superior physical attributes, she was a lot smarter and more perceptive than me. On one of our early dates, it was raining when we left the restaurant, and I got drenched walking to get the car. She saved the day by telling me I had a dry shirt and jeans in the trunk. I had no idea they were there. As I changed into dry clothes in the back seat of the car (the first time I had been nearly naked with a member of the opposite sex) I marveled that, based on a quick glance earlier that day, she had seen my clothes and remembered where they were.
After our children were out of elementary school, Vi went to Binghamton University to earn her Masters in Computer Science. She became a software engineer and eventually led the team that developed the computer programs for the helicopters that got Osama Bin Laden. (Vi is undoubtedly the world's best lead software engineer. If you don't believe me, you can ask her :^)
Ira Glickstein