Fortuitous acquaintanceship with woman I'd marry

After reading a paragraph from Russian author Ludmila Ulitskaya’s novel, The Big Green Tent, in Lenoid Bershidsky’s book review in The Atlantic, I was reminded of my own first acquaintance with the young woman who became my wife. It’s fascinating to trace the trajectories of people destined to meet. Sometimes such encounters happen without any special effort of fate, without elaborate convolutions of plot, following the natural course of events—say, people live in adjacent buildings, or go to the same school; they get to know each other at college or at work. In other cases, something unexpected is called for: train schedules out of whack, a minor misfortune orchestrated on high, like a small fire or a leaky pipe on an upper floor, or a ticket bought from someone else for the last movie show. Or else a chance meeting, when a watcher is standing in one spot, on the lookout for a target, and suddenly a girl glides by out of nowhere, once, twice, a third time. And there’s a weak smile, and then, suddenly, like dawn breaking—she’s your own dear wife. Nora & I first met in August 1978 in Yuma, Arizona, at the first faculty staff meeting at Gila Vista Jr High for the fall semester. She had recently been hired to become the first certified librarian for the school, after years of having secretarial caretakers in the position, following her two years at Campo Allegre in Caracas, Venezuela, & another two & a half years in Yarra Junction, Australia. I had already spent my first two years as a public-school teacher of language arts for grades seven & eight, with an intention after the coming year of returning to Arizona State University with tenure to complete my master’s degree in fine arts (composition). Raised in New York State, Nora came out west for her master’s degree at ASU in 1971-2 – we were on the campus for that one year but never met – before getting the job in Australia. Leaving Venezuela in the early summer of 1978, she returned to Arizona, staying in an apartment in Wickenburg with a music teacher at the high school, in search of employment. She applied for openings as a librarian in Winslow, Globe, Miami, & Yuma, each of which offered her the job. Hoping for a location closer to Phoenix, her relationship with the music teacher on the rocks, she decided not to wait any further for her preference, choosing Yuma, though it was farthest away, because it was the largest of the school districts reaching out to her. Shortly afterward, the school she most wanted contacted her with its offer, but she had already agreed to the contract in Yuma. For several attempts at my asking her out for dates, I was rebuffed because she said she had other things to take care of. Then one day, she invited me over for lunch.