Lucy and Love

I love this story...

​December 19 and 20 were important days for Lucille Ball and Gary Morton. The 19th was Gary's birthday and the two had their first date on December 20, 1960. Lucy later told journalist Gladys Hall:
"Gary is, by nature, a happy person. He lifts - and the lady known as Lucy was, at that time, woefully in need of a lift...His is the natural humor of one who loves to laugh and wants the world to laugh with him. That makes two of us. I always wanted to make people laugh and I have always loved, and wanted to be with, people who laugh. That evening, I laughed with Gary and when the evening ended and he took me home, I was in better spirits and felt more like ME than I had done in many months.

The following day, December 21 (I have a mind like an IBM machine for dates) Gary took off to play a two-week engagement in some hamlet in Ohio... While Gary was away he called me on the phone, or wired me, every day and when he got back to New York he continued to call every day. He also - after asking my permission to do so - called for me at the theatre every evening after the show and took me home, or, if I felt up to it, somewhere for supper.

As a date, Gary was quiet and relaxed, comfortable to be with, sort of cozy yet gay as all get out, sweet and attentive, but no demands - all play it by ear, easy does it, day by day - until the day (2 months after we first met) when striking a serious note for the first time but trying to give it the light touch, he asked, 'Would you like to go steady with me, be my girl?' To this question, naively put, my instantaneous reaction was: 'Oh, no I don't think so. I'm not ready yet.'

When I fell in love with Desi, it was at first sight - wham, bang and away we go! - whereas my love for Gary was slow growth, with its roots in the faith that, just by being his sweet and steadfast self, he built in me. I liked him before I loved him and this is good, this is the way it should be, if love is to outlast the roses and rapture period and develop into a relationship based on a firm foundation of shared interests, mutual confidence and the ability to communicate, one with the other."

Lucy and Gary remained married for the rest of Lucy's life

xx
Ghita

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