Because It's You: A Forty-Five-Year Romance and Rediscovery

By Seth Sharp

This is a short love story that takes place over a forty-five-year period in our lives. The actual love story only takes place for about a year and a half. In that time, a very strong friendship and love affair would endure forty years, two marriages each, and eight children between us (now grown). I believe in love, miracles, second chances, God, and most of all, our friendship which has never left us. The love affair is a small part of this story. We became friends who trusted, loved, and searched for each other through others but failed until January 12, 2019, when Edie finally found me on Facebook. The story doesn't end here; it begins here.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 24, 2020
• ISBN: 9781646288984

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Because It's You

A Forty-Five-Year Romance and Rediscovery

Seth Sharp and Edie Amundsen

Copyright © 2020 Seth Sharp and Edie Amundsen

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2020

ISBN 978-1-64628-897-7 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-64628-898-4 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

The First Meeting

Norris Music Room

The Dinner Invitation at Dad’s Apartment

The Long Goodbye

New York, the First Time

The Breakup

Forty Years Lost

A New Beginning

The Long Ride Home

You Never Forgot Me

Exploring My New Love and Home

Finally Coming Home After Forty Years Apart

Not the End, but the Beginning

To Edie’s Mom, Nancy Amundsen and my Dad, Charles S. Sharp Sr.

They both loved and believed in our relationship when we were young and in love. Over 40 years ago.

Edie and I think that they would both be thrilled that we are back together.

Chapter One

The First Meeting

Edie, I have loved you since you were fifteen years old and a sophomore at Evanston High School. I was a nineteen-year-old freshman at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois (fall 1974). Today in the year 2019, whenever we question why we are still together after forty years apart, the answer is always Because it’s you.

My cousin Robin Edmonds had invited me to join her and some of her friends from school so that they could meet me, her cousin Seth. We met at Yesterday’s, a restaurant in Evanston. There were about three or four of us, me being the only male in the group. After the introductions, I noticed this very shy and very beautiful young woman named Edie Amundsen. She spoke with a unique accent that I couldn’t figure out. So I asked her what county she was from. She looked at me as if scratching her head and said, Long Island, New York. Yes, I felt kind of dumb, but I got her attention. Thus started this bizarre and wonderful forty-five-year journey of romance.

As we ate dinner and talked among each other, I couldn’t take my eyes off Edie. She shyly looked back at me and thought, Why is this college guy looking at me, a high school girl? My interest in Edie went on for months. Edie and my cousin Robin both worked at a local ice-cream shop on the same shifts. I would stop by frequently and buy ice cream so that I could hang out with them. I must have put on about twenty pounds that semester. I just couldn’t stay away from Edie, but because of our age difference, we became friends. We would hang out with Robin and play guitar, talk, listen to music, and so on.

Blue-Eyed Lady

V1

Her eyes were blue, her face was fair

I knew that when I saw her there

My heart was in my throat

She smiled, and then she said hello

My spirit was as light as snow

I was in love, and that’s all I know

Chorus

Life was all I hoped it’d be

Me with her and her with me

Our love was all I could see

This blue-eyed lady has set me free

V2

Before she came into my life

I’d had some pretty sleepless nights

But now she makes my dreams come true

This woman has set me on fire

For her touch I’ll never tire

Now my days don’t seem so blue

(Chorus)

V3

Soon our lives will be as one

And we’ll wake up to the sun

Together our souls will surely thrive

I tell her things she needs to hear

Blue-eyed lady, please never fear

Through the years our love will survive

(Chorus)

Chapter Two

Norris Music Room

I suspected that Robin began to realize that Edie and I were beginning to have an actual relationship, and Robin kind of dropped out. I was very taken by this young woman. We couldn’t have a romantic or physical relationship because of our four-year age difference, so we became platonic friends, hand-holding friends. We enjoyed long walks and talks; we also enjoyed listening to music together at Norris Music Room on campus. We would gaze out of the large windows at Lake Michigan and enjoyed each other’s company. I remember telling Edie that when she became old enough to legally date, she was going to be a beautiful, smart, funny, and most extraordinary woman. I was hoping that I would still