I was partly living with two who owned homes on the same street, just blocks from each other, and both knew of my involvement with the other. I had given up on knowing true love. A bottle and a bed was about the closest thing I had figured would come close to it.

I pulled up to a red light on my motorcycle and felt a heavy sorrow in my heart. There were no cars behind me in that small town, so I sat through the light with my head down until I started to weep.

A car finally pulled up on the other side of the intersection and stopped. I saw a beautiful woman as I straddled my Hog, bare chested and vested. I was on my motorcycle. She was in her Monzda.

"Wow! Now there's a fine lady!" I thought. I watched and then wondered why I had never seen her before in the two years I had lived in that small town.

The light changed again to green but I wasn't going anywhere. I noticed she wasn't either. Her head pressed against the stearing wheel below her hands and then I noticed her head began bobbing. She was crying too.

"Man. What could be so wrong to make such a fine woman cry at the edge of an intersection?" I thought. I did not realize she was crying over me. There she sat, in prayer, crying for the right man to come into her life and I was just across the street! There I was crying for a beautiful, faithful woman to love me, and I was looking straight at her.

The light changed again to red. I glanced behind me and as I turned forward again, she was looking right into my eyes. For that brief moment something stirred within each of us. She was wondering, "Who's that guy?" and I was wondering, "Who's that girl?"

The light changed again and She went on her way, and I mine. I quickly visited one of my girlfriends for a drink but didn't stay. I had to find her!

Just a while later I saw her vacuming the floor boards at the car wash and I did a U-turn.

After my first words of greeting she looked shocked. I noticed through her puzzled look a spark that lit up her eyes. Her down cast spirit came alive in her! I didn't know it then but she was realizing that I was "that" one! The one of her heart's desire. A bum like me? It just didn't seem fair...for her, but I felt something sure about the situation and my faith began to be encouraged. I began to sense the Spirit of the Lord. It had been a while.

She agreed on a ride and for some reason she was willing to trust me, when in fact, I didn't trust myself. That in itself caused me to be a gentleman in every way, when in truth I didn't want to be.

We rode the old scooter to the dock of a lake where we sat talking until the sun began to rise. Upon the break of that new day I proposed marriage. She accepted readily and then I tried to talk her out of it.

"Naw, you don't want to marry me, really. I'm a dead beat ex-preacher turned drunk and I don't have a job." "I can hang with that." she said. "In the meantime I do have a job, so don't worry God will provide work for you. Are you willing to work?" she asked.

"I'm willing to dog paddle to China in the chill of winter for you darlin', but you don't want me, seriously. I'm living with two women and I'm still not divorced from my second wife!" I expected the flax to fly with that bomb, but she didn't raise an eyebrow. "So. Get rid of them. I can wait for your divorce to go through." she smiled.

"Wow. Yeah! Ok! Wow! Ok." I kept repeating. And so we rode off in the sun light so she could go to work and I could find a cheap attorney. We've been together ever since. It will be 18 years this July 25, 2002.

Now, for the rest of the story:

The place where we met is Spring Hill, Louisiana. I was an un-employed drunk motorcycle tramp, ex-early morning DJ for a Gospel Radio station with a program called, 'Daybreak With Scotty.'

KBSF FM had fired me for encouraging the Christian listeners not to drink too much one friday. "Drink WHAT? MILK?!" my boss screamed. God only knows how a hung-over biker, ex-preacher ever got that job anyway!

Little did we realize then, but our union was the product of combined answered prayers.

Ten years before we actually met, we both had lived just a few miles apart in Houston Texas at the same time! I was in a much better state of mind and committed to the Lord, attending Bible College. We both were praying for that special person in our lives.

The facts are; I was clean shaven in a Salvation Army suit, witnessing Jesus to a stranger on a street called, Strawberry.

She was riding in the car with her parents and sisters and stopped right beside me at an intersection. I turned and saw her face and something began stirring when I looked into her eyes. She now says she felt something in her soul she still can't explain. According to her testimony, her heart fluttered as her daddy rushed to take them for ice cream. Our eyes stayed glued on one another until she was out of sight.

I left the poor guy who was in need of salvation hanging in the middle of a sentence. He had to tap me to get my attention back.

The year was 1975. I was 20 and she was 17.

We never forgot each other's face! But as the years worn on, I got alot more hairier and she grew up, so when we first met again we didn't readily recognize each other.

While I was in college she was in high school. In the prime of our youths we were both committed to prayer for God's will in our lives and especially for a soul mate.

Her heart's desire was to marry a Godly man, and she always thought that perhaps it'd be a minister of the Gospel. Mine was to marry a beautiful faithful woman who would stay with to me if I went to China in a row boat!

Through out the waiting, and two bad marriages, I lost faith and although saddened, she never did, but was close to losing hope that I'd be found.

Exactly 10 years later...in a different State...hundreds of miles away he brought us together again at another intersection. And when she found me, I found faith again. When God gave me Carmen, I gave him me.

The desire of hearts we first felt on Strawberry Street so long ago was answered at Cherry and Main. The fruit of our union hasn't always been without pits, but like a slow boat to China via first class, it has sure been sweet!