Our son, Brian was born when I was 31 and Doug was 33. When he was born in March, his sisters were 9 and 12. He was not an accident – by any means! We tried for two years to have him.  Anyway, when Brian was born,  Doug was several years into diving. He and “Steve”  and several others regularly went on dive trips to different places. That wasn’t a problem for me. I didn’t dive and didn’t care that he went.  However, coming home with a new baby, I really expected that Doug would be there to share in the joy (and work) that a little one brings. Especially, since this was his “Son”.  Two weeks after we brought Brian home, Doug announced that he would be leaving on his next dive trip in a few days. I was Shocked! Seriously? He would leave me, home, alone, with 3 children for a week? While he went on a vacation to the Carribean with diving and drinking, and sun screen, and adults? But, he said, the trip was already paid for. He Couldn’t cancel it! Don’t worry, he said. “We’ll be in port every night. I’ll call you.”  He promised that if anything went wrong at home, he would get a seaplane out immediately, and fly home. Since I had friends and family in town, I told him he could go, but he had to call me, every night. He promised, we kissed, and off he went. That first day without him was rough, but I was comforted that I would get to talk to him that night.  Friday night, I cooked supper, put the kids to bed, sat by the phone…that never rang! Saturday night, I cooked supper, put the kids to bed….nothing! Sunday night, ….. Monday night,….. Tuesday night,….Wednesday night,…..Thursday night…the phone RANG!!!  The operator said, “I have a collect call from Doug. Will you accept charges?” In my loudest voice, I screamed, “Hell, NO!” And slammed the phone down. When he finally came home on Saturday, he explained (from the doghouse), that they Had been in a different port each night, and he Had tried to call me every night. But in our particular comedy of errors, each phone had problems. Either it was broken, or the wait was long, etc.  At the time, I was dubious, but I have since travelled to some of these island locations and can verify that a lot of the phones and other facilities simply do not work.  At any rate, from that trip on, when ever either one of us said, “I’ll call you”, it made us smile. Stay tuned.