Spotlight Tour – A Rendezvous To Remember by Terry Marshall and Ann Garretson

Book Details

Book Title:  A Rendezvous to Remember: A Memoir of Joy and Heartache at the Dawn of the Sixties by Terry Marshall, Ann Garretson Marshall
Category:  Adult Non-Fiction (18 +), 378 pages
Genre:  Memoir, Romance
Publisher:  Sandra Jonas Publishing
Release date:   Feb 2021
Tour dates: Feb 9 to Mar 1, 2021
Content Rating:  R. This memoir contains mature themes, explicit sex scenes, one f-word, and occasional profanity.

Terry Marshall and Ann Garretson Marshall taught English in the Philippines as Peace Corps volunteers and later served as Peace Corps country co-directors 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 traveled to forty-three countries. They live in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Guest Post

Listen . . . and new stories will seek you out

Peschiera del Garda, Italy, May, 2012. Annie and I are at a small, family-owned restaurant overlooking Lake Garda, just a short walk from our hotel.

The lake is the scene of Annie’s great teenage escapade with her girlfriends in 1956, a daring skinny-dipping plunge. And it’s also the scene of her 1964 “remake” of that event, this time a skinny-dipping misadventure with Lieutenant Jack Sigg, which left them both so unsettled.

Our mission: Find American Beach, the military retreat where she launched both adventures. Will the third time be a charm? We aim to find out.

We finish our wine. It’s late. We’re tired. We scoot out our chairs to retire to our hotel room.

“Excuse me, you are speaking English,” the woman at the next table says. “Americans?” She’s striking: dark, coifed hair, nicely dressed, mid-40s or so. The man she’s dining with nods, but says nothing.

We pause and chat. Next thing we know they’ve refilled our wine glasses and we’ve joined them at their table. We give them the elevator speech version of the memoir we’re writing. They’re fascinated.

Then, bam! They’re off on a tale of their own:

She’s Italian, a Verona native. He’s American, a former GI stationed in Verona in the early ’70s. Here’s their story in a nutshell: they fell in love.

They married shortly before Victor’s tour of duty ended. Days later, he returned to the States and mustered out of the army. Bianca stayed behind to finish the paperwork needed to immigrate to the US.

She talked to Victor’s superiors. Went to the American Embassy in Rome. Leaped one hurdle after another—but then, she got snagged in a catch-22 of regulations. She couldn’t get out of Italy.

Months passed. Letters didn’t help. Phone calls were impossible. Back in the States, Victor grew worried. Then impatient. Frustrated. Angry.

So what did he do?

He put on his old army uniform, showed up at the nearest air force base, fast-talked his way onto a series of military flights to Italy, arrived in Verona, and set out to push the paperwork through—all the while acting as if he were still on active duty.

From time to time, he ran into some of his old army buddies. They said, “Jeez, Victor, we thought you were out” or “God, man, did you re-up?”

Each time, he shrugged. “Ah, you know the army!” Everyone did, of course. No one doubted him.

He pulled it off. He impersonated an active-duty soldier—in uniform. He hand-carried the paperwork through a series of face-to-face meetings with army brass, embassy staff, and local government officials, got the signatures he needed, and took his bride back home to the States.

Talk about chutzpa! Victor’s got it.

Now, here they are in Peschiera, but not on vacation. The draw of Verona and Lago di Garda was too strong. They’ve lived here for years.

Later, we check our email before going to bed. Victor has sent us directions for how to get to the American Beach.

But here’s the amazing thing: Their story is only one of the many sparked by our elevator speech. All we’ve had to do to enrich our storehouse of love stories is to listen. And listen we have.

Thanks so much Terry Marshall, coauthor, of A Rendezvous to Remember 

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