THE LUCK OF A WOMAN

THE LUCK OF A WOMAN

By Anita Waggoner

When I followed Marvin to Freedom, Oklahoma, I brought a woman’s hopes and more confidence than experience with cowboys. He had a smile that could make a sensible woman reconsider things she had already decided. I knew business. He knew bulls. Somewhere between the two, I figured we could make a life.

The ranch gave us plenty to do before we could find out. On the 3,400 acres I owned, there were cattle to tend, fences to mend, and rodeo plans that rarely stayed simple. Marvin liked a cold Budweiser, and there always seemed to be room for a cooler in the ranch truck. Once, while helping with his taxes, I added up his beer checks and discovered enough money to make a down payment on a new truck. I checked the figures twice. Loving a cowboy did not keep me from knowing what things cost.

Still, there were evenings when I could put the figures aside. The work would wait until morning, and for a little while we could sit together and look out over the place. I built Cedar Canyon Lodge and Stables Café & Cantina with a future in mind. I wanted guests at the tables, bulls bucking in the arena, horses in the pens, and a life that had room for both of us. Some days Marvin and I could see that future together. Other days we could barely agree on the day in front of us.

For thirteen years, Freedom asked more of me than I had imagined giving. There was love, there was laughter, and there were mornings when I got up and went to work with something still weighing on my heart. Now, when I think of Marvin, I remember more than the hard times. I remember the man who helped lead me into a country where I found out what I could do.

The luck of a woman, I learned, sometimes takes years to recognize. Mine was there in the ranch I owned, the things I built, and the courage I carried with me when that chapter was over.