HOW MY MOM MET BEN
Story by Susan Diamond
Nancy is my mom. She was in Miami Beach celebrating her 40th birthday when she met Ben, the love of her life.
It was a weekday – Thursday, at the Fontainebleau hotel and the pool area was a scene out of an 80’s era Austin Power movie. Lots of beautiful people, decked out in designer beachwear drinking alcohol in the afternoon under the blue Florida sky.
Newly forty, Nancy could still rock a swimsuit. There were four of them at the pool with my mom that day. They were in town from Atlanta for the girls weekend that would make history. Janet, a realtor. Debbie, pharmaceutical sales rep, and Laurie, wealthy recently divorced housewife who was footing the bill for the first class shindig.
Nancy had just walked up the stairs from the beach and was standing at the foot wash. She was balancing a paperback copy of The Joy Luck Club, and a drink, trying to rinse the sand from her legs.
There was a lot of apparatus on the fancy foot shower with buttons to press and levers to turn. Nancy chose the wrong one. A jet stream of water came out in full force five feet in the air, bypassing my mom’s throat and dousing an unsuspecting person five feet in height who happened to be walking behind her fully clothed.
She heard a gasp, turned around, dropped her drink, and held on to her book, as she saw the results of her foot bath faux pax.
There stood in front of her a very small man. It was a conscious assessment that told her he was not a child, only because of the full black mustache on his very youthful face.
He was soaked to the skin. Her water blast pierced several layers of his expensive clothes. Gucci loafers, white slacks with a once crisp pleat, open neck light blue collared shirt, gold jewelry and a navy blazer with a crest at the pocket that screamed “MONEY$!!”
That’s how Ben and my Mom met.
Understand this: The attraction wasn’t Ben’s obvious wealth. It wasn’t a perverse pity for his extremely small stature. It wasn’t even the poor puppy dog smile he gave her when she asked him if he was all right.
The attraction was an instant stirring of her heart and a warmth that came over her from the inside out when he touched her arm as they talked...read more
