Jamie Lee

This time of the year I often think of my first husband, Wayne Christopherson.  We met out at Sylvan Lake in 1976.  I was the hostess out there and he was a Grey Line Bus driver.  He was so tall and young and gangly and his smile was always wide and real.  He loved driving those tourists around the Black Hills.  A favorite story of his was when he had a load of tourists and was about to take them through one of the thin tunnels along the Needles Highway.  He loved doing an “ah shucks” farm boy laugh and telling them that it was his first time taking a bus through that tunnel and he sure could use their help.  If you have ever taken a car through one of those tunnels, you would understand his odd sense of humor.  You would never, ever think a bus could make it unscathed, and the tourists instantly became back seat drivers. 

Wayne and I got to be friends but not too “friendly”.  I was in my third year of college just busting my butt trying to make enough money to finish the final year.  As it happened, I made and saved every penny and decided to have some fun.  The next winter I took my hard-earned savings and went to study in Oxford, England for two trimesters.  That trip was definitely one of my “rites of passage”.  I can still remember landing in that foreign country alone, knowing no one, finding everything from the money to the transportation so unfamiliar I barely made it from London to Oxford by train.  Those 6 months were an incredible experience for me.  When I flew home in June, I think I had 80 cents in my pocket and no prospects.  I called Sylvan Lake again and my old boss had filled all but some waitress positions.  I grabbed it and went back to the Hills for the summer.  (I am originally from Cass Lake, Minnesota.)

 It was kind of a come down to go from running the dining room to being “just a waitress”.  I was older than most of the kids working there and lonely.  Wayne was no longer driving bus, but one day he and a friend of his wandered in for lunch.  I was so happy to see him that he must have thought he won the lottery.  We dated through the summer, got engaged at Thanksgiving, and married the following Memorial Day Weekend (1977) one week after my college graduation.

I moved permanently to the Black Hills.  Wayne had just bought a house, and I was so thrilled to at last have a home of my own.  I planted a luscious garden, hunted for work, painted walls, wallpapered, stripped ugly cupboards, and generally settled into the married life.  It was not a marriage made in heaven but, on looking back, it gave us both what we were looking for at the time.  And better yet, it gave us three of the most incredible children I could have ever wished for.  They are so smart and beautiful and warm-hearted-my gifts from Wayne, and I so honor him as the bearer of those gifts.  The second gift Wayne gave me was my current husband, Milt. (Yes, that is a long, interesting story.)   Wayne and Milt were friends, and I can remember Wayne telling me that I was just going to “love” his new friend-because we were so alike.  When Wayne and I split, it was to go to other, more compatible unions. 

His birthday was the 9^th of May (he would have been 55 this year).  And our anniversary would have been the 28^th of May.  It just does not seem possible that he’s no longer with us.  Sometimes I dream that I see that long, lanky form coming through the door again, smiling that smile. 

 One September day almost five years ago, he and Chuck, his number one guy, were flying a small plane along a powerline in North Dakota and the plane crashed.  Both were killed instantly.  Wayne was 49 years old. 

 This is already a long post, so tomorrow I’m going to post a piece I wrote after his death.  It is called “Blunt Force Impact”.  This will be my little memorial to a great guy who did a lot of wonderful things for people.  Where ever he is, I hope he gets this message of gratitude from me.  We had our differences, Wayne, but we were completely together in our love for our children.  This November your son is getting married—and I so wish you could be here. 

 Good night.

 Jamie