A Hold-Up to Remember

[Jim Bense]

It was a lovely Summer day in 1989 and I had business to attend to in Nichols, the Accounts Payable department to be exact. Neither Sharon nor I had been at the lab for long, but I was quickly developing a reputation of being the energetic, friendly, comical technician in the computer department. I approached AP that fateful day with the same cheeriness I always had and thought I might enter with some witty repartee. So, knowing it was an entirely female department, I burst into the room shaped my fingers into the mocking shape of a gun, and proclaimed, "All right everybody, put your hands up and hand over your purses". It wasn't exactly as dramatic an entrance as the swashbuckling Errol Flynn, but it did have a rather dramatic effect. Now keep these two things in mind before you judge me as a complete buffoon. One is that I knew the ladies in AP (well, I knew most of the ladies anyway). The second is how was I supposed to know that just a day or so before, Sharon had her purse robbed?
Not only was it robbed, but she had to tangle with the perpetrator. What happened was that Sharon, at the time a single mother, came home from work and was apparently followed around to the back of the house where she normally entered. No sooner did she walk in the door and put her purse and keys on the dining room table (in view from the back door), that a hooligan made his move and attempted to throw open the door, snatch the purse and make a hasty retreat. Sharon caught sight of him at the door and managed to throw her shoulder into the door in an attempt to prevent his entering. The struggle ensued, but alas he outweighed Sharon by quite a bit and was able to muscle in and grab the purse. Needless to say it was a terrifying and upsetting incident, and the last thing Sharon needed was a wise-cracking computer geek scaring the life out of her with some ridiculous tomfoolery causing her to relive that traumatic moment.
Anyway, I walk in their office on that fateful with a big smile prepared to introduce myself to this very attractive woman, and she shoots me a look like I am the biggest !@#$%^&*() in the world. Of course, after hearing her shocking story, that's exactly what I felt like. All the other people in the office were simply saying, "Oh, that's just Jim Bense, he's so funny", but I'm fairly certain Sharon was thinking something completely different! Naturally, I needed a way to make this up to her, but alas I was certain she would never speak to me again. As months wore on, I would see Sharon here and there always wanting to know her better but not wanting to push my luck. She was polite and friendly, and eventually a mutual friend we had here at the Lab persuaded both of us to meet at happy hour behind Blackford bar in the Spring of 1990. It was then Sharon's turn to surprise me. We met behind Blackford as planned, but she didn't come alone. No, she didn't bring some 6'8" muscleman to beat the living tar out of me. Instead, from behind Mommy's legs peeked a beautiful, although very shy little 3 year old girl named Ariane, Sharon's daughter.
Since first meeting Ariane, I found out Sharon had another daughter, Lori and Sharon found out I had two sons Jonathan and Gregory. Long story short, I fell in love with Sharon, I loved her daughters and she my sons. We were married, and had a daughter together, Cassie. Sharon and I will be celebrating our 13th wedding anniversary this August, but time can never erase the memories of the very first day we met.