My wifes modeling career

[jdviole2]

I don't know how many times Helena and I were asked how we met. Especially after people found out that we only knew each other 3 weeks before we got engaged. So here is the story. I need to warn you though that this will sound like the plot of a cheesy romance novel or maybe a Hallmark movie but I swear its the truth. In one of my first posts I told you that we met at a picnic sponsored by the company where Helena and my dad worked. I was home on leave from the navy and dad had bought a ticket for me to go to the picnic. Helena was supposed to ride with one of the other young women at work. Friday night she called my dad to tell him that she wouldn't be at the picnic. The father of the girl she was going to ride with had suffered a fatal heart attack. Dad talked her into coming with us. My mom made a point of assuring me that this wasn't any kind of setup. Saturday morning we pulled up in front of her parents house and she came running down the stairs to the car. I fell in love that very minute. We are talking slow motion, soft focus, romantic movie music time. The picnic was held at a local amusement park. Since we were the only two single people near the same age, she asked me if I wanted to go on some rides with her. We rode a lot of rides. A few too many actually. For the first and only time in my life I got motion sickness. (Of course later when people asked me what I thought about her when we first met I could tell them honestly that she made me sick) We held hands as we walked like we had been going together for years. The next week there was a concert with the Edgar Winter Group and the James Gang. I went to her workplace and asked her if she wanted to go with me. We had a great time, and shared our first kiss on her parents front porch somewhere around midnight. (Several years after we got married she told me that the day I asked her to the concert she called the guy she had been going with for more than a year and broke it off with him) Every day for the next week I spent lunch with her in a tiny park (under the interstate) near where she worked. The more time I spent with her the more it seemed like I had known her forever. The following week I was due to return to Naples Italy and the navy. I didn't want to take a chance that she might drift away from me so I proposed. She said yes immediately. None of our parents raised any objections. We were both in our early 20's so it wasn't a "teenage" romance kind of thing. My mom was sort of in a state of shock. Since we hadn't known each other that long she wasn't sure it would last. In fact just after our 25th anniversary a friend of hers asked how we were doing and mom answered "well they are still together". Great show of confidence huh? She truly loved Helena though and so did my dad. Hell everybody loved Helena. Sappy story isn't it. A mixed bag of pictures today. Number one is another Pompeii shot. She is standing next to a public drinking fountain. That was in 1974. The next picture is from the early 80's. She is coming down a staircase from the top of a lighthouse in San Diego. The third shot is in her parents home right after I got out of the navy in Sept of 1974. She was trying out a new hairstyle. Must not have liked it since I never saw it again. The fourth picture shows her relaxing in front of tower arch in Arches National Park. This was in the late 80's. The fifth shot is her at the beach in LA. Again in the late 80's. The sixth picture shows her taking a break in San Diego during the trip in 1990 (the skinny dip trip). The last was taken in 1984 while in New Orleans for the worlds fair.

[jdviole2]

When we brought Helena home from the picnic she got out of the car and leaned in the front passenger window to thank my dad and say goodbye to mom and I. When she leaned into the window she put her hand on my arm, as if for support. She told me later that that she did it deliberately so that I wouldn't forget her. She was that way. If she wanted to do or see or have something she didn't let anything get in her way. Not that she was pushy. She just gently manuvered things so that she usually got what she wanted. It is a tribute to her that no one ever got mad at her during her manuverings. Among the many concerts we attended, one of her favorites was Johnny Winter. In case you don't know him he was an albino blues guitarist/singer. Loud, driving, sweaty blues. Usually the concerts we went to were in auditoriums, stadiums, or theaters. This one was held in a party room of a local bowling alley that used to host music shows. They had three party rooms that were connected. Each room had a maximum number of people allowed, to conform to fire regulations. They sold enough tickets to fill all three rooms. Needless to say everyone crowded into the one room where the band was playing. We had seats on barstools in the back of the really small room. Every music group/performer has a typical audience. We certainly didn't fit Johnny Winters core audience. We were fascinated as the people started to come to see that they were almost all "bikers" and their girl friends. Now I never noticed it before but based on this crowd the typical "biker chick" is a really tall woman. With the boots that most of them were wearing they were almost all over 6 foot tall. Most several inches over. Helena was 5 foot 4 inches. She looked like somebodys baby sister in comparison. The show starts and between us and the stage is this entire crowd of giant people. Some were standing on chairs. All were in a party mood. All standing hip to hip pressed tightly together. Helena wanted to see the band and wanted to get closer. I didn't see anyway that was going to happen so I told her we should just stay where we were and enjoy the music. Before I knew what she was up to she hopped off the barstool and began to push her way through all those tall men and taller women. I figured she was a dead woman. Then I saw one of the biker women put her arm around Helena's shoulders and guide her through the crowd to the front by the stage. I didn't see her again until the end of the show. Thats what I meant about her doing whatever it took to get what she wanted. And also what I meant about no one getting mad at her while she did it. We laughed about her "biker gang" experience often. It was one of her favorite memories. So on the the pictures. The first one is Helena at the trial garden you have seen in an earlier post. This was taken on a different visit in 1979. The second picture shows Helena having her first cup of coffee in a motel room on one of our vacations in the early 80's. On trips she didn't function at all well without coffee in the morning. The next picture is Helena at Colorado National Monument. The next picture was a surprise to me. It is another swimsuit shot from the "skinny dip trip". I didn't even remember this one existed. The next shot is another dressed shot from one of the nude shoots. The last picture was taken on Venice Beach in LA. She really wanted to roller skate there after seeing it in so many movies and TV shows. Neither of us had been on skates in years. I fell on my butt the second I tried to stand up. She really laughed about that. I quickly got my "sea legs" though and did very well after that. Helena had a hard time with the skating since she was most used to skating in a rink and not used to a sidewalk with all the sand, rocks, and other junk to block the wheels. She finally ended up on her butt too. That stopped the laughing at me at any rate. This was probably in 1981.

[jdviole2]

Spoiler alert. Todays post covers some sad material about Helena so if you only want to know the sweet side skip right to the pictures. I warned you. Since life mixes good and bad experiences to shape us I need to tell you some of the bad things that happened to Helena during her life. She had many physical ailments in her life. She had severe bleeding into her brain twice once in 1964 (she was 13) and once in 1994. The latter time required neurosurgery to correct the problem. She also had a stroke and broke her hip. With all of those she had to go to rehab to learn to walk again, and in some cases how to speak and read again. Each time she managed to drag herself all the way back up. She never let these things get her down and never let them stop her from living her life the way she wanted to live it. Then in 2016 she fell and broke both arms at the shoulders. Her body had put up with so much for so long that she didn't recover from this. She had to spend 2 years in a nursing home trying to learn to walk again (the long bed rest she needed made her lose all the muscle strength in her legs). When it was apparent that she was not going to regain her walking ability I took her home. For a year she lived a pretty good life considering. I was her full time caregiver. She was wheelchair bound. It bothered her that she couldn't get outside to help with the yard work anymore. By October 2019 she knew that she was fading. It was sad to see her frustration not being able to do or say what she wanted. (She lost the ability to speak). Just before Christmas it was apparent that she was near the end. I know that everything comes with an expiration date but it just seems unfair that after all she went through it came so quickly for her. I was lucky enough to be with her holding her hand when she died. I had promised her mother when we got married that I would take care of her and be with her the rest of her life. I kept my promise. Sorry this post was a downer but if I am going to tell her story then you need to hear it all. The takeaway from this, of course, is that she was a fighter and never gave up. Her body gave out but not her spirit and humour. OK back to happier subjects. Todays pictures. The first shot is another Pompeii shot from 1974. She is in on of the public baths. In the day they were for men only, women had their own bathing areas. The next picture is Helena on a trail somewhere in red rock country. Taken in the early 80's. The next picture is Helena in front of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. This was where the Oscar ceremonies were head in the 70's. We were in the crowd watching the stars enter the pavilion for the 50th awards in 1978. This was taken a few days after the ceremony. The next picture is Helena, also in 1978, in the Huntington Hartford museum looking at a painting called Pinkie. (She had painted a ceramic of Pinky and wanted to see the original). Behind her is Blue Boy by Gainsborough. The next picture is from 1975 and is one of a series of close up shots I made of her. The last picture was taken in 1980 and shows Helena ready to take a photo in the Rocky Mountains. She loved being out in the mountain air. That's it for today.

[jdviole2]

Just noticed that the las picture in todays post was a dupe. Sorry about that.

Mod Note: Thanks. I got you covered.

[jdviole2]

After yesterdays sad story I thought I'd try a couple of more upbeat stories for today. We used to take our hiking vacations in the fall. We went to Colorado all the time for the hiking and the Aspen trees are so brilliantly colored in the fall that we tried to time our visits when they were at their best. The down side of that is that you could run into snowstorms in the mountains also. On one trip we decided to try to hike to the top of Flattop mountain. It was going to be a long hike but not as bad as some of the mountain top hikes could be. The sky was clear when we started the hike. The path winds through the forest to the base of the mountains. From there it climbs fairly sharply along the side of a narrow valley before it begins to climb up above the trees. The path along the valley is perched right on the edge of a drop off of about 220 meters. The path is not very wide either. Before we had climbed very far it got cloudy and then started to snow. Just lightly at first. It was really beautiful walking through the forest in the snow. We had climbed almost all the way past the valley when we noticed that the snow was getting very heavy. We could not longer see any further than about a meter in front of us if that. Helena was worried about finding our way back down. I assured her we could just follow our footprints in the snow. I turned around to show her and saw that our footprints were disappearing almost as fast as we were creating them. I told her we had better start down. Needless to say the hike back through the valley was interesting since we couldn't see where the dropoff occured. It was slow going. We were both pretty nervous but by the time we got home the hike had become Helena's favorite story of the trip. On our first trip to California, as I have told you, Helena had pretty much planned out the entire trip. All the things she wanted to see. After she layed out the trip for me I told her that she had forgotten to put Disneyland on the list. She looked at me like I was insane. She reluctantly added a day at Disneyland to her list (just for me). So we get to Disneyland and go in. If you have never been to the California Disneyland you enter by passing under some train tracks and through a tunnel and emerge into Main Street. A representation of an early american small town. As you exit the tunnel all the sounds of the outside world seem to disappear and it really is almost like time travel. We had a great day. Lots of fun things to do and see. I thought she was having a good time but she hadn't said anything one way or the other. We stayed through the fireworks and then headed back to Hollywood to our hotel. We had seen a lot but hadn't seen it all. On the way back she turned to me and in a really soft hesitant voice asked if there was anyway we could go back another day. I started to laugh and she got a little mad. She wanted to know what was so damn funny. I told her that I had already planned for us to go there three times. I just knew she would love it. That became a life long joke for us. Anytime she indicated that she didn't think she would like something all I had to do was say the word Disneyland and she would smack me, or if we were in public, I would get "the look". I'm sure you all know, or have given someone "the look". So for today we will start out in Disneyland. This is Helena in front of the town hall next to the "lost parents" sign taken in the mid 70's. THe second shot shows her in a formal garden somewhere, I really don't remember where this was taken. It is around 1980. Third picture is taken on a trail in Colorado. She is in front of an Aspen tree. Unfortunately we were a bit late that year and the brilliant colors had faded. This was 82 or 83. The next picture shows Helena in an outfit that she didn't wear much. I don't know why I think she looks exquisite in blue. This was in the late 70's. Those fall vacations sometimes meant that the temperature was cooler than she liked. No complaints from her though. As you can see she was ready for the cold. Again this was in the early 80's. The last picture is one of the set wearing the hat she had on in the nude mirror shots. This would have been in 74 or 75. (you might notice a lot of dust specs on the picture. I spent about an hour last night working on this picture and still didn't get all the spots removed. It was a really dirty slide. And not that kind of "dirty")

[jdviole2]

Going to skip story time for today. I've been really busy with things here at home. So we will get right to the photos. You have seen a lot of pictures of Helena with her cameras and taking pictures. I have said that I think she was a great photographer. I thought for today I would include a few pictures she had taken. The first picture is one of the gardens at the Hunnington Hartford museum in LA. The skill, to me, in taking a great picture is the composition. Especially today when the focus and exposure are done for you. In this picture she took it from slightly to the side so she could get the hedge included pointing toward the gazebo at the rear. The next picture is a shot she took of some of the Aspen trees I told you about. This shot better shows the brilliant yellow of the leaves. The third shot is of sunset over a lake in Colorado. Sunset pictures are tough to take. Her camera did NOT do the exposure for you. You were expected to focus, set the shutter speed and select the correct exposure manually. Its a great picture. The fourth picture is Helena in one of the cemetaries in New Orleans. Supposedly this is the cemetary where, in an unmarked crypt, is the body of Marie Lebeau a Voodoo priestess. (Keep in mind she is supposedly buried and many places in New Orleans) This was taken in 1986 when we went down for the Worlds Fair. The next picture is Helena again in the gardens of the Hunnington Hartford taken in 1978. The last picture for today was taken in 1980 at the trial gardens we used to visit.

[jdviole2]

I'm afraid that Helena's upbringing did not prepare her well for marriage, especially marriage to me. Her mom was European and had a casual attitude toward nudity. Her dad was a different story. (Helena told me once he, as a photographer, had taken topless pictures of her mom but destroyed them almost immediately because he was afraid someone might see them). I on the other hand, since I was a teenager, have always been relaxed about being nude and being seen nude by others. Never seemed to bother me. I've told you about her feelings about nudity when we first got married. Anyway. Helena had never seen the ocean so on our first trip to San Diego she was determined to go to the beach. We went to Sunset Cliffs Natural Park. They are sheer cliffs dropping straight into the ocean. Spectacular. Close by there is a metal staircase that you can walk down to the beach. We went down and began to walk along the edge of the water. We used to go on vacation in the spring so it was a little too cold to go swimming but the sun was very warm. We were having a great time. We'd been walking about 15 minutes when we came across a guy laying on the beach getting some sun. He said hi. We said hi. We stopped and talked to him for a few minutes and then went on with our walk. About 10 minutes later Helena stopped and turned to me. In almost a shout she said "that guy was NAKED!!". It had just registered with her that he was sunbathing nude. It bothered her that she didn't notice right away. I told her that it probably was that he was so relaxed and natural about his nudity that he relaxed her enough that she didn't notice. It made quite an impression on her. (In fact I think she was disappointed that he was gone when we came back) I don't know if that led to her "skinny dip" on a later trip to San Diego or not. If so I owe him my thanks. On to todays pictures. The first one is a "surprise" nude. I do not remember taking this. It was taken in a motel in Arizona in 1985. A bit blurry because I was in a hurry to get the shot before she covered up. Her favorite way to refer to me when I was doing something "naughty" was PIG. If I was REALLY being bad then she called me "wh*r*". This was the first time I got called wh*r*. She was not happy with me. The next shot is also from 1985 and was taken in our motel room. We stayed at a place called "Little America". Red velvet flocked wallpaper. Pretty ornate. She was happily tired when I took this. The third picture was from 1990. It was taken just outside of Balboa Park in San Diego. Helena loved to wear short dresses, skirts and shorts. When she came to Naples to stay with me we were on a bus and this very tiny Italian "grandma" started giving me hell about letting my wife dress like that. She patted Helena's knee and chattered at her, saying basically she had to be careful dressing like that around all those Italian boys. Helena got a big kick out of that. The next picture shows Helena coming out of a cliff dwelling in a place called Walnut Canyon national monument in Arizona, again in 1985. This is a prehistoric native american dwelling. I don't believe you are allowed to go in the ruins anymore. On the walls you could see the handprints and even fingerprints of the women that applied the mud to the walls. The next shot is of a tired Helena at the Grand Canyon in 1985. We had been walking along the rim and down into the canyon a ways for most of the day and she was pooped. The last picture is also from 1985. We went to the Farmers Market in LA and here she is enjoying her number one favorite thing to do on vacation, eating. I notice that the auto editing put some stars in two places in this post. I completely understand. I'm sure we all know what I was trying to say, that Helena would sometimes refer to me as "a woman who sells her sexual favors". A wh*r*. That's it for today.

[r3mdh]

This is a beautiful story. Have you ever considered writing a picture book dedicated to her? What you’ve written so far is book-worthy.

[jdviole2]

First off I want to mention the post from r3mdh about a picture book dedicated to Helena. I love writing the stories I tell here. It's wonderful remembering all the things about Helena as I compose them, but the memories are still pretty painful for me also. I'm don't think I could stand the work involved in writing a book. Not to mention the fact that I am totally unqualified to write anything more complex than a shopping list. So thanks for the thought but I don't see that ever happening. Besides her story will be here for people to read anywhere in the world, anytime they want. Couldn't get that type of coverage with a book. On to the topic for today. Popcorn and Butter. (sounds like the title and plot of a not very good porn film). One of Helena's favorite snack foods was popcorn. Popcorn dripping with butter. In the mid 90's Helena's dentist told her that she needed to get braces. She had wanted braces since she was a little girl. She had a diastema (space) between her two upper front teeth that she hated. Her parents didn't want to pay for braces so she didn't get them. Now her teeth had shifted and it was medically necessary to get them fixed. One of the forbidden foods when you have braces (all together now) is popcorn. She was very good for a year but something in her snapped one day at the movies. She ate popcorn. For the next three days she brushed, and flossed her teeth spending more time at that than at any other activity. I had to perform checks after every brushing to see if she had any trace of the forbidden snack in her mouth. I never could find anything and neither could she. Wednesday she had her appointment with the orthodontist. She went into the treatment room with the dental assistant leaving me in the waiting room with all the moms and dads who were waiting for their kids. Less than 30 seconds later I hear the assistant ask her if she had enjoyed her popcorn. Somehow we missed a hull. I got to laughing so hard I finally had to explain to the waiting parents what the joke was. When we left one of the moms stopped Helena and told her that popcorn was her favorite snack too. Helena was so embarassed. Like I said she loved her popcorn with tons of butter. One of our local theaters had just started allowing you to put your own butter on the popcorn. The Saturday after she got her braces off Helena informed me we were going to the movies. She got her popcorn and poured on the butter. (OK we both knew that the "butter" had never been aquainted with a cow and probably was a close relative of motor oil, but we made do) The movie was over at five. By seven Helena had started to develop a stomach ache. By eight thirty the last stage of the digestion process had started. She had the runs for three days. From then on anytime she wanted to overdo adding some kind of condiment to her food, all I had to do was ask her if she wanted any more butter on her popcorn. That would usually end the discussion. On to the pictures for today. The first picture today was taken by Helena's dad in 1971 two years before we met. The second picture was also taken by her dad in 1973 after I had returned to Naples. When I left she didn't have any new pictures to give me so had her dad take this one and she mailed it to me. I had told the guys there that I got engaged and they wanted to see a picture of the girl. When this one came they were there when I opened the envelope. None of them believed that this beautiful girl had agreed to marry me. By the way the outfit she is wearing is the one she had on at the picnic when we met. That is the girl that I saw coming down the stairs. That is the girl I fell so hard for. Both of those pictures came from very small prints so the quality is not as good as I would like. As I have said before you never had to tell Helena how to move or pose. She was a natural. She was the same way with her dad. In fact the only posed picture I have is her high school graduation picture (I may show you some other day) and it doesn't look much like her. Of course the photographer was directing her how to pose in that one. The third shot shows Helena riding the bronze lion at the entrance to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha Nebraska in about 1987. Next we have Helena taking a break somewhere in California probably in 1978 or 9. Next a shot from the early 80's again in California, I think at Knotts Berry farm, but not sure. The last shot is a sexy shot for you, also from a print. I do not even recall taking any color prints during her "nude" posing sessions but she is clearly wearing the same transparent nightie she wore for those pictures. This is taken in a different room than the nudes but still. Somewhere I should have the negative for this. And since I can't imagine I only took one picture on print film there must be others. All I have to do is find them. Maybe someday.

[jdviole2]

Today I'm going to talk briefly about sex. I strongly believe that what goes on between two people sexually is nobody's business but theirs. However, this brief story about sex should give you more insight into the way Helena thought and acted. She always worked hard planning things to get the best outcome for everybody in every situation. Helena had something happen to her when she was a very little girl. I'm not going to go into much detail except to say it involved a male relative and lots of inappropriate nude touching on many different occasions. As she got older it was difficult for her to experience intimate contact of any kind. She found it impossible to give or accept love with anyone but her parents. Though she dated and had a steady boyfriend when we met she told me it never went beyond kissing and clothed touching. It made her too uncomfortable. She said she had to force herself to do even that much because she thought it was what "normal" people did. She did not get any pleasure from it. She told me this story on our second date. I told her I understood and asked if it bothered her that when we met I had held her hand. She had an amazed look on her face when she said that with me it felt good. It felt normal. When we got home I asked her if I could kiss her goodnight. She didn't answer but took my face in her hands, and kissed me. During the next couple of weeks we would hold hands, kiss, and touch each other gently but no more than that. I didn't push. I figured that if were to go further it had to when she felt comfortable. I could wait. She was worth it. After I returned to Italy Helena began to worry a lot about our wedding night. She wanted it to be perfect. She wanted it to be special for both of us. She didn't want the trauma of her past to get in the way. She was afraid she would freeze up and ruin the night, making it memorable all right but for all the wrong reasons. I came back home a week before the wedding to help with things. She still was worried so decided to talk it over with her mom. Then she came up with a uniquely Helena plan. The wedding was on Saturday. I was staying with my parents until the big day. On Wednesday afternoon the doorbell rang. It was Helena. She came in and in a soft, slightly shaky voice said that she was thinking that we should take a practice run at the wedding night. Prior to that day I had not seen her naked, and she had never been naked in front of any man. We were both nervous. I am not going to provide details (like I said, nobody's business but ours) but I will say that she didn't hesitate or freeze up. We acted just like two kids playing a really fun adult game. On our wedding night we were both relaxed around the other and comfortable being naked in each others arms. The night was perfect. It was special. Later we always referred to that particular Wednesday as our "undress rehersal" for marriage. The first picture for today is another one from our painting project. Helena is stripping wallpaper. The people that lived in the house before us had trouble getting the wallpaper to stick so they used Elmers Glue. We had to use razor blades to remove the paper from the walls. This was in 1990. The second picture shows Helena on the corner of Hollywood and Vine waiting to be discovered in the mid 70's. I discovered her and made her come back to the hotel. The next picture is Helena taking a rest break during a session raking leaves at our first house in 1977. Back to California and the Japanese Bridge on the grounds of the Hunnington Hartford in 1978. Another swimsuit picture from the skinny dip trip. This is from a color print. The last shot is from a very small color print probably taken in 1979 or 80.