Krista became my love, life, my reason for living. She was the reason for me to wake up each morning. I can not imagine a day with her not in my life. This story is dedicated to all the Krista's who make this world worth living.

I met Krista in San Francisco. I was attending a conference, to represent my company in Madison WI. Krista was at the same hotel to make arrangement for the American Embassy there in San Francisco, for a group from several NATO Countries.

Krista was sitting in the lounge by herself having an afternoon drink. The stool next to her was empty, so I asked if I could join her. We conversed about different things pertaining to our jobs and things here in San Francisco. Krista asked if I had ever been to San Francisco before, I said yes

that I had. It was nearing time for dinner so I asked Krista if she would like join me for dinner. She asks if I would like to go to Fisherman's Wharf for dinner and if I had ever heard of the Fisherman's Wharf, I said I had heard of it but never been there. Krista said lets go and had the concierge call for a taxi to take us.

Krista picked the restaurant since she had been there many times. The head waiter greeted us and showed us to a table. The restaurant décor was like out of a movie from the past and everything was first class. We both had a very delicious seafood dinner and white California White Wine. We had a flaming Alaska Desert and a great California Port. We relaxed and talked about our background. Krista had grown up in the LA area, went to school there and college at UCLA. Her first interest was to get a MBA; she did and went to work for one of the large import/export companies in San Francisco. Krista soon found that speaking one language was keeping her from being qualified for higher level management positions within the company.

Krista took a leave of absence and went the University Of San Diego School Of Languages. She discovered that she was able to master several Asian languages in just two years. She graduated and returned to her present company and within two months she was promoted to high level management position and supervised a large department within the company. Krista made good progress in her field that she was working. However, she felt that was something lacking and that she must pursue her desires to excel in another career.

She had a friend that worked in the American Embassy. One day she was talking to her friend. Her friend, said there was several positions vacant in the embassy and gave Krista the name of the Director of Human Resources. Next day Krista calls the H/R Department and set up an interview and wanted Krista to send her resume by messenger the next day. Only a few days had passed when Krista was notified that she had a date for the interview, she could hardly wait for the day to come for the interview. She went and the interviewer was impressed when she read Krista's resume. The week following, Krista was notified that she had the job; also they wanted her to start work the next Monday. Krista called the Human Resources Department and told them that she needed to give her current job 30 days notice. The H/R Department told Krista that they would take care of that problem. Krista stated that she wanted to leave her old job in good standing. Krista remembered what her dad told her many years ago. "Never burn your bridges behind you", you may need a job there again."

Human Resources called the next day and had squared with The Import Export Company and that the thirty day notice was waived and Krista was notified that day the she would start work at the American Embassy next Monday as a translator. Krista was ecstatic that she had finally got the kind of job that she wanted for several years.

Krista's Mom and Dad were born in Greece and had emigrated with their parents from Greece. They came from a generation of fishermen and first settled in New York with friends from the old country. Grandfather and Grandmother did not like living in a big city like New York. They moved to Tampa, FL, where some of their distant relatives lived and worked in the sponge and fishing business.

Krista father and grandfather would go down in the Gulf of Mexico each day, in diving suits that would weigh them down to the bottom of the gulf, they would harvest the sponges and sent them up to the boats were waiting. The men on deck of the boat would clean the sponges and hang them in the rigging of the boat to dry. This occupation lasted five years and the sponge business went bad. The sponges were killed off by some mysterious bacteria. So there were no more jobs in the sponge business.

The family moved from Florida to Mississippi where there were plenty of jobs for everyone. They all worked in the fishing industry. The men worked each day catching the fish and the women worked in the fish houses cleaning the fish and preparing the seafood for sale and shipment.

The family stayed in Mississippi for several years. Krista's folks decided that they would move to California which they thought the climate would be better than Mississippi for their Grandparents. The family lived in several locations in California before deciding to settle in San Francisco. After five years Krista's Grandparents passed away Grandfather in February and Grandmother in September they were interned in the Catholic Cemetery not far from were Krista's parents lived.

Krista and I became very close, she would visit me in Madison and next month I would fly out to San Francisco to be with her. We were getting tired of commuting back and forth. I tried to get my company to transfer me to San Francisco where we had a branch there. However, they said if I did transfer I would lose my seniority and take a reduction in pay. I resigned my position in Madison and moved to San Francisco so we could be together.

I had a few contacts and Krista had been in the bay area for some time, over the years had made many friends and associates.

I had a resume but it was old and needing updating. Krista had a friend who prepared resumes, so Krista went with me to introduce her friend. Her name was Kim and she was from Saigon, Vietnam. We spent several hours going over my old resume. Kim was very thorough and covered all the positions and the continuation education that I attended each year in my old job. Kim told me it would take a week or more to finalize my resume.

The next week Kim had my new resume completed and she sent it out to all the organizations that recruit new senior employees and also was listed on several popular web sites. I received many calls and I scheduled some appointments for the next several weeks.

Several of the positions looked very promising. It was not to long and I was notified that the Senior Vice president of a large manufacturing company wanted to interview me. He hired me on the spot as manager in charge of distribution of our products worldwide. Krista was glad that I had been hired and had a very good job in a very promising career.

The following year just before Christmas Krista and I were engaged and we planned a wedding in April. Everything went well and we were married in April as we had planned. We had decided that we would honeymoon in Holland to see the yearly Tulip festival held each April. We flew to New York then to Scotland then to Amsterdam. We had made reservations at one of the finest Hotels in Amsterdam and we spent our wedding night there. We had many occasions that we could have spent the night together. However, we both wanted our wedding night to be something special and it was. It was just wonderful at last be together as man and wife.

We enjoyed the festivities associated with the tulip festival and saw many sights and also went to the cheese market. We thought that since were in Holland that we would visit some of the other countries. First we went to Scotland and spent several days then we went to Ireland and actually took in an Irish Pub. The local people were great and invited Krista and I to visit one of the local farms and stay overnight. We enjoyed spending the night with the local people talking and being with them that evening. Next day we went back to the city and traveled to Sweden.

We went on a sight seeing with a tour and saw many famous homes, famous museum; we were really impressed with the preservation of the art and things that we had never dreamed of. We toured the city and met people who were friendly, very courteous which you don't find in many big city's any more. We spent the night and flew to New York the next day and then on to San Francisco. We took off a week to recuperate from our trip and we were glad to be back home.

Krista's father had a uncle that lived north of San Francisco in a little town named Martine's. It was in the wine country of northern California and had been settled by mostly Greek families who came from Greece. Some came from the wine areas in Greece. They had brought some of their vines from Greece and had kept them alive with wet cloths around their roots. When they planted their grape vines, they did not grow very good since the climate and soil was different than Greece. They tried everything and had no luck. Someone got the idea of grafting the old vines into the new one that were already growing. This procedure took some time but it was not long that they had one of the largest vineyards in northern part of California. In several years they had enough money saved that they build a winery and were producing one of the finest dark wines similar to burgundy but had a lighter color and a hint of berry and the aroma was enough to kill for. They also had a light wine similar to Mosel from Germany but had an aroma and body that all the ladies went crazy over.

Three years after we were married we had a little boy we named him Antonio, he was a very healthy baby and grew like a weed. Two years went buy and we had a little girl we named Crystelle. Every year all of would go up to see Krista's Dads Uncle Harry.

The kids liked to go up in September when the Greek Festival is held, they would have all the Greek food, rides and games for the children. We liked to go up to the festivals and see all the families that we knew. The kids would look forward to the festivals each year.

Soon the Martine's Greek Festival was known all over the country. People came to enjoy the festival and to just be with the wonderful Greek families. People would come from other countries just to be there for the event.

My brother Ed was killed in the Vietnam War and my sister in law and her two children were living with my parents. My brother Zan (short for Alexander) worked for GM in Detroit and had a job that paid in the three figures. He knew that our parents were advancing in age and He bought a small ranch in TX just west of Fredericksburg and encouraged them to make the move to Texas. Krista and I had save considerable money over the years and had made some good investment so we retired and stayed on the ranch full time to be with my folks. Two years after they moved to TX my parents passed away within six months of each other. It was very lonely with out Mom and Dad. Krista and I had an idea that we would ask her parents to move to TX so we could take care of them and not have to worry about them being clear across the country.

Her parents were thrilled to be with us. We made the arrangements to move them to TX. Poppa and Mom had no problem with the move and no time at all was settled in. Poppa and Momma moved in the little house on the ranch, we made sure that their comfort was our first priority and provided a full time maid to help Momma with the house work. Poppa had brought some cuttings from the grape vines in California and started working toward having a small vineyard. I hired a part time gardener to help. Together they had planted many trees including some fruit bearing ones. It wasn't long till Poppa had a garden which provided fresh vegetables to all the families on the ranch.

Momma was an out going woman who made friends easy. We had an army post not many miles away. Through a friend who worked at the post she met the mess sergeant there and began producing pies, cakes, cookies and other pastries for the men. Soon, Momma had to have a helper to assist her in her endeavor of furnishing pastries to the post. She liked baking things and considered it a pleasure to making the lives of the men assigned there a little brighter. So, went our lives, Krista's parents passed on and she and I lived the rest of our lives at the ranch west of Fredericksburg. I hope that I am the first to pass on. I know I could not live without Krista. She has been my life and my love. She has devoted her life to make me happy.

The End

10