Claudia's greatest accomplishment in her life.
This will be the most personal thing I expect to write about on this media.
First Claudia allowed me to chase her, until she caught me. We got married by a Justice the Peace in a San Jose Courtroom by a Judge in September of 1971.
Here I was a recently divorced man of 35, paying child support for 4 children from my first marriage which lasted 12 years.
Here I was a recently divorced man of 35, paying child support for 4 children from my first marriage which lasted 12 years.
I have to say, between us, we did not have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of. But we loved each other.
We spent the first couple of years doing whatever we could to find a place to live while saving all the money we could to pay off Claudia's college loans, and a couple of other debts, while I had to pay child support. fortunately Claudia insisted I paid the child support, which I would have anyway. We even took over the management of an apartment complex which involved me keeping up the yard work, and doing the repairs on any appliances, plumbing, heating, etc. that came up. When an apartment came up empty, we had to clean, paint, wallpaper, refinish the floors as needed.
In addition, Claudia had to collect the rent and send it in to the owners.
Keep in mind, I was working a full time job while doing this apartment managing.
On a more personal note, concerning my own personality, I tended to look and sound angry and/or mad all the time. Something else went on that was not diagnosed or recognized at the time was PTSD.
My symptoms, beside showing up as anger or mad, was really bad nightmares. Once or twice a month I would start violently kicking, punching, and thrashing around while yelling in Japanese. I would wake up suddenly soaked with sweat and find Claudia missing. I would call her name and she would be laying flat on the floor. When I asked why she was down there, she would tell me, I kicked her out of bed. God did I feel bad. Something I never normally or abnormally did was hit a woman. That is the way I was raised.
Claudia never blamed me for hitting her, as she knew it was a psychological problem. (A side note: I never did figure out what the problem was until much, much later)
Anyway, to get back to the reason for writing this dissertation is to explain that Claudia's greatest accomplishment was to guide and assist me in becoming more calm and certainly more pleasant in my dealings with her, my daughters, my co-workers, and with people in general. She taught me how to meditate, to relax, and to take time out before reacting with anger every time something happened that I didn't like.
For those who knew me back in my early years you know what I am talking about. I now smile a great deal more, I make every effort to be pleasant to everybody and I now allow myself to show emotions, where I did not used to do so, except for showing anger.
So I credit Claudia for having the patience and skill to make a better, happier man of me.
Thank you for reading this.
God Bless, Victor Winebrenner.
"(C) Copyright by Victor Winebrenner"
We spent the first couple of years doing whatever we could to find a place to live while saving all the money we could to pay off Claudia's college loans, and a couple of other debts, while I had to pay child support. fortunately Claudia insisted I paid the child support, which I would have anyway. We even took over the management of an apartment complex which involved me keeping up the yard work, and doing the repairs on any appliances, plumbing, heating, etc. that came up. When an apartment came up empty, we had to clean, paint, wallpaper, refinish the floors as needed.
In addition, Claudia had to collect the rent and send it in to the owners.
Keep in mind, I was working a full time job while doing this apartment managing.
On a more personal note, concerning my own personality, I tended to look and sound angry and/or mad all the time. Something else went on that was not diagnosed or recognized at the time was PTSD.
My symptoms, beside showing up as anger or mad, was really bad nightmares. Once or twice a month I would start violently kicking, punching, and thrashing around while yelling in Japanese. I would wake up suddenly soaked with sweat and find Claudia missing. I would call her name and she would be laying flat on the floor. When I asked why she was down there, she would tell me, I kicked her out of bed. God did I feel bad. Something I never normally or abnormally did was hit a woman. That is the way I was raised.
Claudia never blamed me for hitting her, as she knew it was a psychological problem. (A side note: I never did figure out what the problem was until much, much later)
Anyway, to get back to the reason for writing this dissertation is to explain that Claudia's greatest accomplishment was to guide and assist me in becoming more calm and certainly more pleasant in my dealings with her, my daughters, my co-workers, and with people in general. She taught me how to meditate, to relax, and to take time out before reacting with anger every time something happened that I didn't like.
For those who knew me back in my early years you know what I am talking about. I now smile a great deal more, I make every effort to be pleasant to everybody and I now allow myself to show emotions, where I did not used to do so, except for showing anger.
So I credit Claudia for having the patience and skill to make a better, happier man of me.
Thank you for reading this.
God Bless, Victor Winebrenner.
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