The Last Farewell.

The Last Farewell is a song by Roger Whittaker.  At the time Lourdes and I began dating, I was working at a record store at Variety Records in the Omni mall. Lourdes was about to go to Europe, with her good friend Silvia Cajigal. Sometime before she left, I asked  her if there was any music she liked that I could get for her.  She told me there was this song she really liked and all she knew about it was one line ...for you are beautiful.....  I promised myself that  I would get that song for her and give it to her when she arrived....  Normally this would have been an easy task since I worked in a record store but in our case, it was almost impossible to accomplish.  

When I first started going out with Lourdes was around May 27, 1978.  She was about to finish her Bachelor of Science in Biology, and I would finish my Bachelor of Science in Chemistry a year later. We had met many times; it was almost a joke how many times we were introduced to each other.  The first person to introduce us was her boyfriend at the time, Philip Sanchez.  I was a pretty good friend of Phil's.  He was the guy at the bowling alley who would always make a mistake on my bowling sheet.  The charge was 0.35 cents per game.  I would always play for free.   Phil and Lourdes were in my Organic Chemistry I class, Dr. Wellman's.  They would always study together.  I of course, would always study alone.  It was there where we first met.  I remember telling Lourdes about it and she was always surprised that Phil referred to her as his girlfriend.I am still not if she was trying to minimize their rellationship. 

I would always have lunch at the Ibis cafeteria with a number of friends including Fabio, Victor and Georgina.  Sometimes I noticed that Lourdes was also present, although we never sat together.  I did not think she liked me at all.  We actually met more extensively when she was taking Organic Chemistry laboratory, CHM 203, and she had to identify an unknown made up of a dipeptide. I was in the library and several students were discussing it.  After several tests on the dipeptide, Lourdes was pretty sure she had the answer.  Phil was around and Phil asked me if I could help. We were supposed to come up with the answer by judging how far each peptide travelled on a chromatography plate.  After Lourdes had the answer I asked, "but how do you know they are not the same peptide, just repeated twice?"  I had no idea what the answer really was. Her laboratory exercise was different from the one I had carried out. The two peptides seemed to travel at very similar pace which would indicate they were the same peptide. Lourdes became upset because I think she realized I was right.  I later found out from one of the teaching assistants that the peptide was not repeated and in fact she was right.  I did not speak to Lourdes for a while after that.  

We were never really together but we shared common acquaintances.  Then I started playing volleyball with the Friday night volleyball games in the physical education field. We were around 10 students, and we would play with a group of friends from Kuwait.  Also, there were a number of people from the labs and people we had met elsewhere.  One day, Lourdes decided to join us for the Friday games.  There we actually spoke a little. At the time I liked this girl named Yasemin, from Turkey.  I have no idea how she is doing now.  I have always kind of wondered.  

At the time, I and a couple of friends, would go to the Rathskeller.  This was a bar in the back of the student union at the UM.  I normally would go but since I did not really dance I was limited in what I could do. Victor and Maria were great dancers.  Fabio did not really care but had fun. I started to think, who can I ask to dance? and there was Lourdes. I remember dancing with her a couple of times. I had fun but was a bit embarrassed since I did not really know how to do so. 

I kind of wanted ask her out so I told Victor and Fabio and Maria and Marlene so, later in the week i spoke to VFMM (Victor, Fabio, Maria and Marlene) about it.  I finally did ask her to go dancing.  Only problem was, I had not idea how to dance.  I told VFMM and they came up with the idea that we would all meet at Maria's house.  Just to clarify, Maria and Victor were a couple.  Fabio and Marlene were another couple.  I and Lourdes would be the next couple. At the time we hardly knew each other. 

You may find this hard to believe but this was my first date, ever.  I had never officially gone out with a lady before. This was late in the school year of 1978 so I was going to be 21 years old. We arranged a time to pick her up.  It was at LMT's family's house.  Juanpi also went.  He must have been around 15 years old, perhaps younger.  It was good to have him there although he seemed to dominate the conversation a bit. I was happy he was there.  

All of us met at Maria's family's house and Fabio and Victor and the ladies all did their best to make the Moose look and move like John Travolta.  HIs movie, Saturday Night Fever had just been released around 1977.  

We learned many of the steps used in Disco Dancing.  Sad thing is that if anyone asked me to dance nowadays, that is exactly how I would dance.  

That weekend the whole group went dancing.  I still remember Victor spoke to me before we left and we were discussing if it was best for me to drive or for him to drive.  Victor knew I was nervous.  This was my first date ever.  He wanted to see if it was better for me to drive or for him to drive.  At the time i had my second car ever. It was a volkswagen station wagon, beige or tan, I do not remember.  I think it was tan.  I believe Fabio and Marlene rode in the Fabio mobile and I, Victor, Lourdes and Maria rode in the tan volkswagen station wagon. I drove.  We both felt that I would not get as nervous if I had to drive.  

We went to either Pete and Lenny's or one in Miami right next to the airport.  We may have gone to both. That whole summer we spent the time disco dancing at several locations somewhere along mainly Fort Lauderdale.  

Time was coming up for her trip to Europe. I had told her I would get that song with the lyrics "For you are Beautiful" for her.  This was not an easy task.  I have forgotten the date she left.  I remember I wanted to get the song.  I asked several buyers at the store. The conversation would proceed thus, girlfriend is in Europe.  I promised I would get this song for her. What was the name of the song, I do not know.  All I know is that sometime during the song, the singer would say: For you are beautiful. That is all I knew.  I first asked George (I believe his last name was Morris).  Very nice guy who really tried. He really tried but he did not know.  I then asked Charlie, still no answer.  I literally spent days asking people this question. They would ask me Can you sing it?  And I would sing the only portion of the song that I actually knew.  It went something like this ...For you are beautiful.....All the ladies at the store were trying to be helpful.  No one had heard the song.  Finally someone told me that the manager may know.  I went up to her and I asked her.  She said that was a Roger Whittaker song.  I  had no idea who Roger Whittaker.  She actually bought the song for me.  When I heard it, I was sure that was the song. 

Lourdes was returning in around two weeks so I really got it just in time. I think I still  have it at home but I am not sure. 

Lourdes and I were married on August 1, 1981.