My Wife
Deb Schultz
I met Deb when she came down to visit for a couple weeks during in 1978, which was the time of my sister’s wedding to Tex Dickson. She was a friend of a bridesmaid (Patti) and had made the trip to try to gather her thoughts as her mother had been in the hospital for a long time, and expected to die soon. Deb immediately hated it here and wanted to go home.
My sister called me to ask if I would escort Patti and Deb around town, and calm Deb down a little. We went to Astroworld, some big-ass water slide and hit about every cocktail lounge in town. We left for the weeding a week early and stayed on Padre Island, rode a motorcycle almost 400 miles from the Rio Grande Valley after the wedding, and immediately fell in love.
I was crushed when she had to go back home to Buffalo. After two weeks, I quit my job, loaded up the Magnum (car not gun) and headed for Buffalo. The night I arrived, I went to Patti’s house to clean up, and then took Deb to the nightclub where Patti worked. At about 11PM, Deb was asked to come to the phone, where she was told her mother had just died.
During one of the days of the wake and funeral, I asked Deb if she would come back to Texas with me. I remember it had to be one of those days because it was the big gossip with her aunts at the funeral. So told me that she would - but that I’d have to wait while she got her father, two brothers, and sister to the level where they could fend for themselves. This took about two months.
We moved to Austin around Thanksgiving of 1978 and I asked her to marry me a week or two later. Again, she said yes, but that we had to give her family notice to get down here for the wedding. We set a date for the first Saturday after lent, which was April 21 of 1979.
Deb is a hard worker, a good mother, and keeps a clean house - but that is not why she is my hero. We had a rocky marriage for the first ten years. This was most likely because we rushed things before we really knew each other. I had a very serious drug problem that she did not like, and she treated me as if I were her little brother, which I didn’t like. We argued a lot and were both very miserable people by 1989 when I started running around and not coming home.
In October 1989, all of the wheels came off my wagon, I lost my job, and we separated. I moved to Dallas and she had to get a job for the first time in many years because not only had I screwed up our marriage, but also I had screwed up my career and was earning (when I could find a job) about 1/3 of what I had made previously.
Within a few months we found that we still cared for each other, I missed the kids, and she found it hard being a single mother. We agreed to try again - but harder, I agreed to stop doing drugs and to be faithful, and she agreed to ease up on the big sister attitude. I moved back home and the next couple of years were tough for the both of us. I was having business problems (see the JR Ewing Hero story) and could not get a job, Deb did not like having to work, I was depressed, and she was still bitter over my middle-age craziness.
In February 1990 I started my own business, which meant I worked long days for little pay. The company had a real slow start. All odds were against us staying together but we both stuck it out and tried to understand the other’s position.
Today, after more than two decades of marriage to each other, I have never been more in love. I have tried very hard to even the score for my past mistakes. It would have been much easier for us to give up on our marriage - but because we both stuck it out, we are today happier for it. This is why Deb is one of my heroes.
