More on Joy and Bill

Bill and I continued our casual dating through the summer of 1958. His folks came to visit him in N.C. They ( Mom, Dad, Jan and Candy) came to our house for dinner and a visit. I was told later that his Mom (Jean) told him not to let me get away. However, at the time we were not going there. I was helping him save money to go back to Kansas to visit his girlfriend . Bill had trouble saving, so I told him I would help. Later on, he and my brother Roger went back to Olathe, Kansas to visit. His supposed girlfriend was involved with someone else and had just neglected to let him know. Meanwhile, I was deciding what to do with my life, career -wise. I had always wanted to be a teacher and wanted to go to Duke in N.C. Even though I took the year off after graduation to work (at a dry cleaners), there was not enough money. This was before the days of student loans and such. So, I spent many hours in prayer. One particular night, I prayed the whole night and the next morning, had an unexpected answer. Nursing, which I had never considered. Mom was happy because she was an R.N.
When Bill came back, I told him I would be going to Washington D.C. to go to Nursing School. I didn't know where yet. I had applied to a couple of places, one being Sibley (Lucy Webb Hayes School of Nursing), where My mother had graduated and another George Washington University. Well, GW wrote back and said they no longer had a nursing program. Sibley accepted me. That fall, off I went. Bill was still stationed at New River MCAS.
I never believed in "going steady" as, it was termed then. Bill knew this because I told him from the beginning that I would be dating until I had a ring on my finger. So, I began the great adventure of learning and practicing Nursing. I also dated up in D.C. Bill would come up when he could get leave and I was off. Back in those days, we not only had college and nursing classes, but, also worked 5 days a week including weekends at the hospital.
Bill must have wanted me not to date any one else, because on Dec. 29, he came up to D.C., where I was at the Mayflower Hotel at a Sibley sponsored dance with a date. I told him I would see him later at the nurses residence at Sibley. We did and he popped out this lovely engagement ring. I said yes, because we were both so very much in love and so on Dec, 29,1958. we became engaged to be married, date unknown.