My brother was a teacher and he had a student named Carolyn. She was attractive, and 22 and a half years younger than me. We met through my brother, who is still married today to one of his former students.

One weekend I asked her if she wanted to go with me to Jack London square, in the Oakland area, and she agreed. Eventually, she fell in love but I didn’t. I was meeting lots of different girls, and I wanted to have fun. I was 42 and a half years old. Here was a nineteen year old gal who was totally, madly in love with me and wants to get married.

Eventually, I broke it off. I told her at a restaurant in Santa Clara, and she broke down and cried. I left for a couple of weeks and when I got back I called her again.

She said: “Oh, it’s you! Valentine lips!” She used to call me Valentine lips.

I told her I was just calling to find out how she was doing. Eventually my mother and father asked me what my intentions were. So eventually we set a date.

I wanted to have a different kind of ceremony. Being Catholic I had to get married in the church. I knew a priest, father Healy, who was one of the most interesting guys I ever met. He was into exorcisms, out of the body experiences, hypnotism, mental telepathy.

I used to go to hypnotism class to see him. He hypnotized me, and I didn’t think anyone could do that. He told me to relax and sit back. After about ten to fifteen minutes he told me that I was in the first stage of a trance.

I said: “oh no…”

And all of a sudden I couldn’t move!

So I wanted father Healy to marry us outside. Like a lawyer he looked through all kinds of very old books to find out if there was any clause in the Church doctrine that would let us be married outside. We had chosen the rose garden in San Jose.

Anyway, he found an old clause that probably went back a century or more. It said that a priest was allowed to have a wedding outside of the church exactly one time.

He spoke to the Bishop, and the wedding was approved.

So we had a Catholic wedding outside, and it was a great day. But during the rehearsal the father’s voice was so soft that no one could hear him. I remember thinking this was bad news.

But then during the real wedding his voice boomed.

We were married for fifteen and a half years and had a son and daughter. My son is named Nicolas, that’s the Basque spelling of the name, and he is now twenty years old.

My daughter is named Lorna, and she is 26.

I thought our marriage was going to be forever, but after about ten years she seemed to slip away from me. It wasn’t until years later that I realize that I had served a purpose. A man can be useful in many different ways. She was totally attracted to me and wanted me, but when the kids came along I think she didn’t need me anymore.

We got divorced in 1992. I got off the hook, the money, the house, the swimming pool, the beautiful dog and all of that.

Now, I’m retired, writing, and hoping to get published. I published a book in 1993 of stories, poetry, and philosophy. I’ve been on stage as an actor six times. I’ve been in films since 1992. I’ve played various parts and theatrical productions. One of them was called Murder, My Sweet.

I had a bit part in mad city, with John Travolta, Dustin Hoffman, and Alan Alda. That movie was done in San Jose in 1996. There was another movie called Thrill, which was filmed in Santa Cruz.