A Rendezvous to Remember by Terry Marshall and Ann Garretson Marshall
The true story of a soldier, a pacifist, and the woman who loved them both.
In June 1964, Ann Garretson skips her college commencement to tour Europe with Lieutenant Jack Sigg, a tank commander on the German-Czech border, with the hope of returning as his fiancé. A month later, her best friend, Terry, proposes marriage—by mail—throwing all their lives into turmoil.
Jack offers the military life Ann grew up with. Terry, a conscientious objector, will leave for the Peace Corps at summer's end, unless the draft board intervenes and sends him to jail. Her dilemma: she loves them both. Caught between the old mores and winds of change, Ann must make an agonizing choice.
In alternating voices, A Rendezvous to Remember presents firsthand accounts by the two who eventually married, enriched by letters from the rival, whose path led him elsewhere. Provocative and delightfully uncensored, this coming-of-age memoir is a tribute to the enduring power of love and family.
“A love story you'll never forget.”—Hope Edelman, #1 New York Times best-selling author of Motherless Daughters
"A story about what it means to be human—to struggle with love and what we truly want out of life—especially when being pulled in two different directions. Humorous and heartbreaking, the dueling narrative is stunning, surprising, and inspiring.”—Samantha Vérant, author of Seven Letters from Paris
About the authors.
Terry Marshall grew up on a farm in Center, Colorado. Ann Garretson Marshall was an army brat who spent her childhood on military bases in the United States and Italy. After getting married, they taught English in the Philippines as Peace Corps volunteers and later served as Peace Corps country codirectors in the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, and Tuvalu. Back in the States, they worked side by side as community organizers and activists in Colorado.
Terry went on to write fiction and nonfiction works on discrimination, poverty, rural development, and intercultural conflict. Ann has thirty years of experience as a writer, editor, and community-government go-between for issues related to nuclear and hazardous waste cleanup.
Always seeking adventure, Terry and Ann have travelled to 43 countries. They live in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Review
This is the true story of Anne and Terry, but also of Jack, during the 1960’s with the background of a grandtour of Europe and the human rights movement in the US.
Anne and Terry meet at university and become best buds. Anne has been writing letters to her brother’s friend Jack, who is stationed in Europe, for over two years. After graduation she is to travel around Europe with Jack to see whether their fledging relationship has a chance. However, Terry decides he wants more than friendship and they embark on being something more than friends. Is it possible to love two men at the same time? Anne finds herself in this predicament and doesn’t know what to do.
The memoir is interspersed with letters between the three of them and this makes the whole story more robust and real somehow. Memoirs tend to picture the writer in a good light - sometimes unconsciously - but the letters and narrative doesn’t do this. I actually went through the first half of the book going I really don’t like any of the characters. So much drama and unnecessary back and forth. So much indecision. But then I went hang on, what was I like when I was 21 and then it all came flooding back that I was the exact same! When that happened I began to appreciate this a lot more. Like Terry I would have objected to the war and the draft on moral grounds. Like Terry I wanted a great big adventure abroad but gave that up for love. Like Anne there was indecision between partners. Not you my darling husband but before that!
This ended up being a great read! Let me know if you read and your thoughts on Terry and Anne’s love story.
