My name is Patricia Price Tate. I went to college when I was 17 and I was sitting
in the lobby of Old Main and all of a sudden this man kicked open the door and
he walked in and I said to myself, oh my lord that's the same man that sang at our
church when I was 15 and I found out where he would go to work. So I would
station myself at the kitchen door when he had to go past me and I would say
hi Sam and he would maybe look at me and say hi and off he'd go. He also by the end
of September he had a girlfriend whose name was Donna and it was close to
Christmas vacation time. He and Donna had a fight and he made a brag to someone
that he was going to ask the first girl he spoke to to go to the Christmas
dance with him because he and Donna had had this argument. I had followed him to
the post office and I thought it's now or never so I walked up to him and I
knocked the male out of his hand then I proceeded to help him pick it up and I
said oh I'm so sorry let me help you and he said well that's all right and then
he had to ask me because he had made this brag to the other boys that he would
ask the next girl to the dance. He said to me would you like to go to the
Christmas dance with me and I said oh yes I would. Well we went to the steps
where everybody traditionally got their goodnight kiss and then the girls would
go waltzing up the steps you know back to the room. Well Sam shook my hand and
Sam told me he had had a lovely evening and that he would be leaving to go home
for two weeks for his Christmas vacation. He hoped I would have a nice
vacation. Well the next morning I came down the steps with friends. Well I saw
him walking across the room and I thought oh he's still here he's come to tell me
goodbye again. He walked past me up the steps gathered Donna in his arms kissed
her goodbye and said I will call you when I get back. Oh my heart was broken I
thought that's it I've given it my best shot I'm not going to get this man but
anyway I went home for my vacation came back and I was it was a Sunday evening
so I walked down the hall and I heard someone say to me Patty you're wanted on
the phone and this voice said to me guess who. Well I knew immediately that it was
Sam. He said to me would you like to go to the movies with me tonight. Well we
began then of course dating. Then on my 18th birthday in February he asked me to
marry him and I said yes. We had four children nine grandchildren and seven
great-grandchildren with one more great-grandchild on the way. Sam's health
has not been very good he's now in a nursing home for just a short period of
time and he'll be coming home again and I just pray that his health will hold.
When I grow to dream your love will be in my heart.
