We continued on in the same way, for the first three years we were married. Mart and I spent most of the winter months with him being focused on school and me waiting for him. Overnighters were common for students in the school of architecture. He had many, and we often went several days without running into one another. There were no cell phones then. I am not sure it would have made a difference if there were. Even in the early days of our relationship, he would only call once or twice a week. I worked, had lots of hobbies, and started my own university studies during this time.
After we married, we camped around the Maritime Provinces during our summer weekends, but I did not get as much joy from it as he did. He was patient and went off on his own, while I often did my thing back at the tent.
Money was tight of course. He could not get student loans, as my income was too high. Incredible! So I had to take out personal loans to help finance Mart’s education. At the time I did not think twice about it. I was happy to be able to do it. I was awarded a PhT (Put Hubby Though) by the Tech Wives group I joined, the year Mart got his bachelor’s degree.
A rare date night. Mart liked this photo; he did a chalk portrait that I let disappear. My dress was of red velvet that I had worn on another occasion. My sister made the white velvet and lace top for this occasion. He did like a Lady in Red every now and again. The soloist even sang about it at his funeral. Yikes!
I think Mart’s drawing was better than this one.
Turns out I was good for his studies. He completed three years of university without a single failure, improving his marks overall. He graduated with a B.Arch in May 1969 and won a $3,000 National Design Council Scholarship to pursue a Master of Architecture.
In spite of his academic successes, there was precious little improved connecting going on in our marriage, or improvement with his writing skills. He decided to quit his Masters program at the end of its first year, even though his scholarship was renewed.
His supervisor, Dean Peter Manning, was a tough taskmaster and Mart had to focus on writing his thesis. The research, the fun stuff, was done.
Isobelisnecessary 