How I Met My Wife

                                       by

                      J.P.  Nix

    September 3, 1988 was the day that my life would change forever. The life I was living, or thought I was living was not really a life at all. Like most young men whose life seems to be put on hold because they are waiting for something to happen in their life, I was more or less drifting from day to day with no direction. I had been to Panama City the week before with friends and my guitar.   

   Lying on the beach, I wrote a ballad called Anything to Be With You. Little did I know this song would be a stepping stone to changing my life, and it would never be the same.   

   The next week after work, I made plans to go to a nightclub with a friend and had my guitar in the backseat.   

   We were at the club for about an hour or so, I was sitting at a table alone listening to the band on stage, when my friend came roaring in.  

   “Let me borrow you cars keys,” he said. “I need to get my brush out of your car.”  

   I handed him the keys saying, “Make sure your lock it, my guitar is in the back. And then bring my keys right back to me.”  

   “Yeah, yeah”, he turned around and ran out of the club.  

   Under a minute passed, and he tossed my keys on the table. “Here they are.”  

   “Did you lock it?”   

    “Yeah, “and he turned to run back out of the club.   

   I didn’t trust him because he had been drinking. So I got up from the table and went outside to check on my car.   

   He was standing on the sidewalk talking to a tall, beautiful brunette. She was absolutely gorgeous! Thinking she was out of my league, I checked my car which was locked and started to go back inside.    

    “Come ‘mere a minute,” my friend called to me.   

   He threw his arm around the back of my neck, and introduced me to the woman. “This is my best friend in the whole world.”   

   I extended my hand, and said, “Hi. I’m John Paul. You want to hear some tunes?”   

    “Sure,” she said.   

   In the parking lot of the night club, I played her my new song and some other songs I had written. We’ve been together ever since, marrying 2 years later.   

   I never did become a professional songwriter. But I figure the world could live without my music, but I couldn’t live without her. I didn’t know it then, but the next 20 years of my life would be one adventure after another, and I never imagined that I would have it so good.