Chapter 1

Marsha Trebor looked up from her magazine and out the front window. A warm inward smile surfaced as she caught sight of her 72 year old husband Dan exiting the garage which he had converted several years ago to a workshop and where he crafted wood projects of various kinds. His latest creation was a jewelry box. Marsha knew Dan's workmanship was not what it had once been and his frequent memory loss made it even harder to complete even the simplest projects.

She was pleased to see him walking unaided once again. His chronic back pain had slowed him down somewhat, but, as always, the seventy-two year old had toughed it through the same way he had handled multiple by-pass surgery seven years ago. Yes, she noted, there were fresh wrinkles around his eyes and his hair was now almost completely white, but she had to admit, at almost fifty she was no spring chicken herself. Her own deep auburn hair was now peppered with gray and her own laugh lines around eyes and mouth were a bit deeper these days.

Despite her tendency toward self deprecation Allison was still a lovely woman. Perhaps no longer a centerfold candidate, she, nevertheless still turned heads at the supermarket and restaurants. Her workouts were as much to encourage Dan to keep up his physical therapy as for herself, but her body showed the effects of the daily exercise routine and despite the small lines creeping into her attractive face, her overall appearance was that of a woman fifteen years younger. She also looked to see if her son Chris had arrived from the airport. Not yet.

Dan saw her through the window, smiled and blew her a kiss, a little ritual they followed whenever they caught sight of each other after being apart. She returned the kiss and smile and as Dan walked around to the back yard her mind drifted back the ten years to their marriage, and then beyond to when they had first met. Hard to believe, she thought, that they had met a little over thirty years ago. Where did the time go? She could still remember the day her Aunt Allison had brought him home to meet the family. He was so handsome she had thought even at thirty-nine. His beard and open collared shirt gave him a down-to-earth, somewhat rugged appeal which she found surprising for a college professor. He taught at the local college having moved to town only months before. Everyone thought Aunt Allison was fortunate indeed to have attracted the attention of such a well educated and personable man.

"And this is my niece, Marsha," said her aunt.

"My goodness," smiled the educator, "this family is filled with beautiful women."

Marsha blushed. At seventeen she still wasn't accustomed to such compliments and she would have looked away except that their eyes met and she was spellbound. Although it lasted only a second or two, it seemed to Marsha that they would share this moment forever. Her heart fluttered and in all honesty she could see that he, despite the differences in age and education, was as attracted to her as she was to him.

"I ... I guess I'll have to get used to calling you Uncle Dan," she smiled timidly, trying to think of something to say.

"Dan will do just fine. 'Uncle' makes me think I should be bald, potbellied and wearing a loud, out of fashion sports coat," he grinned.

"Dan it is," she said and again their eyes met and held.

The moment was broken when Allison grabbed her fiancé and marched him off to meet some other relatives.

Marsha could remember being able to think of little else for the next few days. Later she would realize that meeting Dan was probably the beginning of her fascination with older men.

Though attractive, Marsha had not been particularly popular in high school and had had few dates. She was a late bloomer, her figure almost nonexistent. It was hardly surprising then, that she had never become serious about any of the boys her own age. After meeting Dan, she noticed her tastes in movie stars and performers edging toward those in middle age and even though she had no real interest in them, she now saw her own male high school teachers as more than instructors.

At the same time Marsha came to realize that her parents, because of their incessant arguing, provided little in the way of a supportive upbringing. Her mother, a relatively attractive woman always thought she had settled for too low a station in life and never failed to remind Marsha's father of that fact. A manual laborer all his life, her father was quick tempered which led to many a shouting match which they did little to hide from their daughter. All too often their anger was vented toward the young girl who faced an identity and self image problem from the very start. Marsha's mother loved the attention of men and was even a bit jealous of her daughter as Marsha began to mature. She finally turned to other men and when her husband found out, the marriage ended in acrimony. Her mother bounced from man to man until moving in with, but never marrying, one of her former lovers and largely severing ties with her daughter. Marsha's father soon remarried. Marsha got a job at a donut shop and lived with her father and his new bride. That is until she met Randy Kahn. Outwardly he resembled Dan in that he wore a beard, dressed casually, had an easy smile and was considerably older than Marsha ... There the resemblance stopped, however. Where Dan was well educated and erudite, Randy had struggled to get through high school. His father was an auto worker and he had spent several years as a machinist for General Motors. He had moved to the area to be close to his parents, now retired. When his first marriage broke up, he found work in a local machine shop at a drastic drop in salary.