It is spring 2024 when my dancing friend, Virgilio is walking out my front door, then calls me to come outside to see the rainbow overhanging my driveway. Of course I run to see, surprised it can be seen through gray clouds. A first to be seen without sunshine as its cloak.

As special as that is, it doesn’t compare to the miraculous timing of how I met my fifth husband, Dave. I’d driven as hour to Skaneateles, NY to find a waterfall on a hot August day 2020. I am a waterfall freak.

In the midst of downtown, Skaneateles Lake provides a swimming area where lifeguards keep swimmers safe although not from a stranger who follows me to where I am swimming laps. His friendly smile says: “What a beautiful day!” As I swim by, I say: “Yes, it’s a great day to be alive!”

All I have seen of this stranger is his face, so when we walk out of the water, I am pleasantly surprised to be following a 6’2” man with wide muscular shoulders, arms attached to big hands. I think, which is rare, I am attracted and want to do what with his body?

We sit on the grass conversing while time makes no difference. I learn he lives in Depew, NY, is on vacation with his wife, who is not interested in hiking to waterfalls like we are. He had hiked to Carpenter Falls that morning and offered to show me where it flows. His marriage of 30 plus years is rocky. He’s a carpenter; I’m a Marriage and Family Therapist. He agrees that he wants an “open and honest” relationship.

I hand him my business card picturing a waterfall and say if he comes to Ithaca, NY where I live, I will show him many waterfalls as “Ithaca is Gorges” flaunts my Jeep’s bumper.

Another surprise comes after Dave and I begin seeing one another; he tells me that what made him want to know me was hearing me say: “It’s a great day to be alive!” Not just me squeezing my bikini top causing a waterfall between my boobs.