Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: What Was a "Turning Point" in Your Parents' Life?

I'm still trying to catch up from missing last week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, but I'm happy to participate in this week's challenge from Randy Seaver!

Here is your assignment, if you choose to play along (cue the Mission:  Impossible music, please!):

1.  Family stories are often about "turning points" and "major decisions."

2.  This week, please describe a "turning point" in the life of one of your parents (or for both of them, or for grandparents).  Describe the decision and discuss the outcome of it.

3.  Share the turning point with all of us by writing your own blog post, writing a comment on this blog post, or putting it in a Substack post, Facebook Note, or some other social media system.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

From my perspective, probably the most important turning points in my parents' life was when my mother decided to go to a party with her best friend.  They were living in Miami at the time.  Their car broke down on the way to the party, and my mother was fretting about what they could do.  Her friend said, "Don't worry, my uncle is a mechanic.  I'll call him and he'll come fix it."  And that uncle became my father, because my mother's best friend was my first cousin.

I don't know when exactly this happened or the specifics of how things developed from there, but I do know that my parents were married October 21, 1961 and shortly thereafter left Florida and drove across the country to Los Angeles.  I'm pretty sure the first place they went was my godmother-to-be's home in Whittier.  Ruthie was my maternal grandmother's best friend.  My mother told Ruthie that she was pregnant (with me!) before she told my grandmother.

So if my mother hadn't decided to go to that party, I might not be here.  I guess my brother and sister wouldn't be either.  And maybe my father would have become a famous musician!