Chapter 6...Life and Death

In January 1985, I was pregnant with our second child. Rick left in March for a 8 month Med cruise and I moved home to Paragould to be with family. Chad and I moved to an apartment upstairs from Nan and for the next 7 months I continued to grow bigger and enjoy being with family.

On October 22 I gave birth to a 8 lb 10 oz boy William Bradly Dawson. Chad was thrilled to have a brother and I was thrilled to have this baby. This pregnancy was not as easy as the first. I had allot of complications.

Rick returned home in November and spent the holidays on a 30 day leave and we returned home to Charleston after Christmas.

In April of 1988, Rick went to Norfolk Virginia for a Ship Yard overhaul on the ship. He was only to be there for about 6 months so we decided that the children an I would stay behind and get ready for school and t-ball.

June 6, 1988 our son Chad dies in a drowning accident. ( read June 4,5,6 blogs for details)
I t would change who we were the rest of our lives. We became distant, bitter, sad people and our marriage would not survive it.

Within weeks of Chad's death, the Navy came in and packed up our house and moved us to Norfolk Virginia. Where we lived for 1 year. It was a very difficult time. Rick left for Orlando for 3 weeks for a school and Brad and I took the Amtrak to Orlando and spent two weeks pool side.
It kept our minds off of our loss for a short time.

In 1990, we moved to Batesville, Arkansas were Rick was a Navy Recruiter. I liked living closer to home. Rick was never home so Brad and I spent allot of time in Paragould with family.
But like so many times before, while I was away, Rick would play. One weekend, Rick had said he was going to have to be in Little Rock all weekend and that Brad and I should go home. Upon arriving in Paragould, we found that our entire family had gone to the lake for the weekend so we returned to Batesville. When I walked into the house, Rick was sitting in civilian clothes and smelling like a french whore. I questioned him as to why he was home instead of LR and he said the kid changed his mind. I walked back to the bedroom and the phone rang. Rick and I picked it up at the same time. A ladies voice says " what are you doing I have been waiting for over 20 minutes on you? Are you coming or not?" He said, "Vicki just came home give me another 10 minutes and I will meet you." and he hung up. My heart sunk. I walked down the hall and calmly ask "who was that?" He said "oh it was Mac, he is at the bar and wants me to come up for a beer."

At this point in our marriage I didn't care anymore, I was so tired of competing with the young skirts he has been chasing our entire marriage. He left and the next morning I retained a divorce lawyer. It was over. I was sad for my son, he had lost a brother and now a father in a year. We moved to Paragould. Our divorce was final on May 10, 1991, my birthday and on May 30, 1991 he remarried. The death of a 16 year relationship was over.