HOSETTA: HOSETTA MEETS GEORGE; CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 1:

Hosetta meets George

The beginning

“...my equal, my companion, my friend. We used to take sweet counsel together, within God’s house...” (psalms 55:13-14 kjv).

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It was around 1980, Hosetta had gone to Georgia, two years before, to attend Clark Atlanta University and get her undergraduate degree in Computer Science.

She stayed with her Aunt Sandra, her mother’s sister. In her spare time, she was also taking a creative writing class at a local community college. That’s where she met Reginald.

Reginald happened to be from Scottsdale too and had graduated from Morehouse that spring, but  had stayed over to take part three of the special writing class. The writing class was being taught by a popular author and they were finishing the last of three classes. Each class was thirteen weeks long. Reginald liked to write fiction as a hobby.

When Hosetta told him she wanted to write professionally he said it was a great and lofty ambition, but not very practical as a career choice.

Nonetheless, Reginald and Hosetta bonded on writing, did an assignment together, and ended up going on a few dates. Hosetta liked Reginald because he was smart and he had a bad boy quality about him.

Most people called him Reggie, but she preferred Reginald. He was a good looking, smooth chocolate-skinned brother with beautiful teeth and an infectious smile. Thus, Reginald did not lack the attention of women. Hosetta didn’t care for his ever wondering eye and most of the time she thought he was somewhat shallow.

Yet, Hosetta enjoyed his occasional company and they planned to continue seeing each other back in Scottsdale. He had hinted about getting serious and having a future together, but Hosetta was not interested in him that way. When another female asked her to introduce them to Reginald, Hosetta gladly obliged.  

She wasn’t the type of female that just wanted a man or to simply be in a relationship. Hosetta dreamed of being with someone she could be innovative with and have a real-life adventure.

Reginald wasn’t the one, but she liked spending time with him, flirting with him, feeling girlie with him, and going on dates with him.

Hosetta came to the conclusion, by what he said, that Reginald thought he was too fine and too much man for one woman. So he was very generous with his physical activities with the females.

She didn’t care for men who spread themselves around like that. Woman desired, to be, their husband of choice’s first and last too. Committing to promiscuous Reginald, on any level, was nowhere on her radar.

Reginald was suave, charming, and could talk much smack. She played along with him, because he could be fun to be around as a friend.

Reginald found her resistance challenging and constantly told her, that one day, she would give-in to his lusciousness sooner or later. She always laughed at him.

Hosetta was 19 going on 20 at the end of her sophomore year, but she was observant and had experienced enough bull crack with the opposite sex, until she was almost allergic to their games.

She enjoyed life. She enjoyed people, but it wasn’t easy to let people into her heart as it used to be when she was much younger.

Her mother had always encouraged her to have male friends too and not to look at every man as relationship bait only. Hosetta took that to heart.

Having healthy male friendships set her standards high for any potential suitors. By having healthy male friends, she learned, first hand, what she did and didn’t like in the opposite sex.

Every man was, first, a potential friend which set boundaries right away and made persuading her heart to go further more difficult.

Like any other female, Hosetta had her likes and dislikes about men. She didn’t want a dishonest man. She didn’t want a cheater. She didn’t want a couch potato. She didn’t want a non-Christian. And she didn’t want a man who wore white shoes. Some of her girlfriends often told her with all her do’s and don’ts she would probably never get a man.

Hosetta, however, was not without male companionship. She was close to her male cousin, Tyler. She was close to her Uncle Sam. She was close to Greg Collins. She was close to her god-brother, Ryan. She spent a good amount of time with them all. Hanging with male friends and relatives wasn’t the same as having a romantic companion, but it was fun!

Her close family and friends couldn’t  wait to see who the lucky man would be that would finally win her heart.

At 19, Hosetta was at a good place in her life mentally and spiritually. The whole world was before her and she had a lot to look forward too. She was going to be a writer, an actress, maybe a nurse or psychologist, She was going to get married to a super fine man, they would built a log home and be on the cover of Log Homes magazine, and they would travel all over the world with their six children. They would also be people of faith and live happily ever after with God in their midst

When she went back to Scottsdale in June of 1980, her and Reginald continued to see one another until the day she saw George Jarrett again.

He had blossomed since she last saw him. He was a beautiful, high yellow man with awesome brown eyes, dimples, the perfect afro, and a winning smile. A man with the right smile could always catch her eye. He had on a red shirt, that day, as she watched him play the piano like no one else she’d ever heard.

Her attraction to him was like a magnet and she did everything she could to let him know she was interested in him. When he finally got a clue, they became fast friends.

A little after they met, George asked her about her name. She told him how she never liked it and didn’t know another black person with the name Hosetta.

So he decided to give her the nickname “Zesty,” because she had such a zest for life. She laughed. Nobody ever called her that, but George and she loved it!

They begin to talk about everything under the heaven and under the earth. They talked until the sun went down. They talked until the sun rose in the early morning sky. They talked until morning turned into evening. They talked until one or the other snored softly on the other end of the phone.

The conversations were incessant, ongoing, and endless. It was the communication that attracted Hosetta to George She went deeper and deeper into a world, with him, where, she felt, only the two of them existed.

They talked, in detail, about the future. They talked about her life in Lincoln and his life in Tempe. They talked about their likes and dislikes. They talked about travelling the world. They talked about dream homes and owning property. They talked about her writing career and his starting his own businesses. They talked about their favorite experiences and things that made them happy. They talked about their worst experiences and things that made them sad. They told, each other, their deepest secrets in the most intimate of details. They talked about their shared values, faith, and being raised in the Baptist church.

Every conversation deepened their interest in one another as they got more and more personal with each other. Hosetta’s heart and soul connected to George and she drew close, to him, in a way she couldn’t explain.

Hosetta and George became inseparable and went everywhere together. They freely expressed their  gratitude for finding such a magical friendship “in” each other. They were truly enjoying each other’s company.

George seem to invite Hosetta, willingly, into his life and she invited him into hers. She wanted to be the companion that helped him achieve his dreams and goals and he wanted to do the same for her.

George’s mind could be scattered all over the place, but Hosetta’s mind was organized and rule oriented. She would tell him to focus and he would tell her to loosen up. They challenged each other to improve themselves, which improved the relationship they were fortifying.

They were each other’s captive audience as they listened to each other attentively. George focused his attention on Hosetta and she on him. It made Hosetta trust him wholeheartedly. They shared flaws and virtues by being open and vulnerable about who they really were at their core.

Hosetta choose to accept George unconditionally. Her friendship, with him, felt safe and it became a place, which bonded her to him spiritually and intellectually.

George’s flaws and “seemingly” vulnerabilities made Hosetta want to stay by his side forever. She fell hard for George, emotionally, and her heart surrendered to the love she felt so strongly for him.

George confessed his love for her as well. Hosetta thought she saw it in his eyes, in his smile, in the gentleness of his words, in his respectful treatment of her, and in the amount of time he was willing to spent with her.

It was a mind-boggling friendship for her and she hadn’t felt this open to love since Lincoln. She was surprised by what they had divulged with one another. Hosetta felt happy to be together with George.

Hosetta would never forget those very precious moments in the beginning. They would be etched in her heart forever. After learning so much about George; she became deeply attached to who she thought he was at the core.

Hosetta “knew” some of George’s deepest truths and he “knew” hers. Hosetta allowed George to come into the unchartered territory of her soul. A place where she was free to be herself and share the most private areas of her life.

For Hosetta, falling for George wasn’t simply because he was fine, talented, smart, kind-hearted, had innovative thinking, or that he offered adventure, but it was the spirituality they shared.

She absolutely loved it that she and George prayed together, shared the Word of God together, had bible study together, and included the Holy Spirit in their conversations. This was her MAJOR attraction to George. She thought he was a man of God who walked the talk. 

Hosetta truly loved that their friendship wasn’t limited to physical closeness, but it was the sharing of their thoughts, their feelings, the deepest parts of their inner world, and most importantly, their Christian faith.

It was their Christian faith that made her feel CLOSEST to George. For Hosetta,  the secret chemistry between them was the Holy Spirit.

For the next couple years, Hosetta and George sustained their close bond while they both finished their bachelor’s degrees. She went to work at the phone company in 1982 and George finished his master’s. In May of 1984 they were engaged and the following June they decided to marry.

One of the things they promised to do together was travel the world. On the night of their rehearsal dinner Hosetta took George into a private room and gave him a special gift.

The gift was two round-trip tickets, to Israel with a 10-day tour package. George was so overwhelmed he fell out of his chair. They laughed, hugged, and jumped up and down, because it would be the first trip out of the country for both of them. They had gotten their passports earlier so they would be prepared to live out their dreams of travelling.

Their honeymoon to Israel was exhilarating and they barely had any money, but they were determined to go anyway. They were so careful with the little money they had.

In fact, George was very stingy with it. They got tired of kosher food after a while and was starving for American food when they returned home. They almost ate a whole pot of, Mother Jarrett's, homemade spaghetti.

The trip was worth the sacrifice. They rode camels, took a mud bath in the Dead Sea, sung “Jesus loves me” on the Sea of Galilee with people from other countries, walked the Via Dolorosa, stood in the place where the Beatitudes were delivered, saw moneychangers in the market, ate delicious Israeli breads and falafels in Tel Aviv, and saw many unique places from the bible.

Upon their return from Israel, Hosetta and George stayed in Scottsdale, at her parents, while she finished her final two weeks at the phone company where she’d given her notice. George had accepted a job offer, at a school, in Wyoming.

Their first place together was a little cracker box trailer they’d rented from a local beekeeper. Hosetta made it look as homey as possible. When they moved the beekeeper said the place looked better and was in better condition than before they came.

The little trailer on Stepping Fetching Lane was just a stopping place along the journey. In their spare time they begin to look for the house of their dreams. They were still talking as usual.

As they begin to look at dream  homes, Hosetta became concerned about living beyond their means, but George told her to have faith. He said God was their father.

George told her about a little boy who was told he could have all the jelly beans his hands could hold and the boy asked his father to get the jelly beans, for him, because his hands were bigger.

He said they were going to ask God to help them get the house of their dreams because God had bigger “means” than they did.

Hosetta admired George’s faith. He “seemed” to simply believe God could do anything, but she wasn’t there yet. However, she prayed and asked God to help her. She didn’t want to be the reason they didn’t get their dream home. Hosetta stepped out on faith with George, but she “felt” scared to death

George challenged her faith in unexpected ways. One day they went to the bank to see if they could qualify for the house and didn’t have an extra dime to their name. George told her to dress up and let him do the talking. Hosetta was shivering and her stomach churned until it made her nauseous.

The bank asked all kind of questions which, immediately, revealed they would not qualify for nothing. The bank turned them down. It knocked the wind out of George’s sails for a moment, but he “still” said God would make a way. Hosetta simply agreed with him, but inside she wasn’t feeling it.

As time went on, they were driving down a busy street when someone hit them from behind. They got a lawyer, went to therapy, and suddenly they had enough money to get the dream home.

Hosetta was amazed and shocked as they sat down talking to the builder about which model and design they wanted for their new home.

Not long after that ,the dream home fell through, because of a dispute between the contractors and the builders. They were disappointed. Hosetta couldn’t understand how God could bless them with a house and then take it away. Her fragile faith was already hanging on by a thread, but George told her God must have something better.

Hosetta couldn’t be silent this time. She admitted, to George, her faith was not as strong as his and she needed some practical assurance. But George said faith “was” practical and faith was built by “hearing God’s Word”.

He began to quote scriptures to her. “if you believe, without doubt, you shall have what you said,” “ask anything, in his name, and he will do it,” “nothing is impossible with God,” “nothing is too hard for God,” “when you hope in him you will not be disappointed,” “trust in him with all your heart.” George went on and on until she finally said: “...Okay, I am with you...God has something better...”

A few days later George came to Hosetta and told her God spoke to him. “...We need to write down everything we want in a house and then God said go and get it...” So they did. He wanted a house with trees. She wanted pecan trees. They both wanted waterfront. He wanted acres of land. She wanted a view. It was fun writing down the things they wanted in a house. They took their list to a realtor and she said she had just the house they were looking for.

George and Hosetta looked at each other with a smirk, but obliged the realtor by following her to the house. Miraculously, the house had everything on their list.

Hosetta looked around at the trees. There were pecans all over the ground. Flat Creek could be viewed from, every room, inside the house. It sat on five acres of land and she could see neighbors in the distance. This house was even better than the one they had been building.

They moved from Stepping Fetching Lane and settled into their new home in Jackson Hole. They were still as close as ever and before long they were expecting a child.

Oscar James Jarrett was born in September of 1987. George and Hosetta kept dreaming. They were renting the house, but begin to think about buying it and running a camp during the summer.

They put together brochures, got the right permits, and advertised. They called it Camp Cupcake and before long they had clients. However, the owners told them they would have to close the camp until the house legally became theirs. Their liability insurance didn’t cover for a camp.

Hosetta was disappointed, because she was having a hard time getting a decent job. One of her camp parents told her about applying to the military and all their benefits.  She became interested. So she made an appointment to see a recruiter and George went with her.

The recruiter begin the process, but right as she was about to start the application, he asked her did she play an instrument or sing. Hosetta said no, but told him George did.

She stopped and listened as the recruiter told George about the military bands and how they travelled and played all over the world. Hosetta and George were both intrigued by the idea of the military band, which would support their dreams of travelling. When they left George had enlisted in the Air Force and she hadn’t.

She teased him about stealing her interview.

Their first base was Travis AFB in California where George played with the United States AF Band of the Golden West. Then he played with the bands in Europe, Hawaii,  Japan, and their last nine years, in the military, was at Langley, Virginia with the Heritage of America Band.

Their dreams of travelling were richly fulfilled. Between the two of them they had gone to Israel, Australia, Korea, Hong Kong, all over Europe, Africa, Hawaii, the Philippines, Japan, Singapore, and Egypt.

When Hosetta left with George to go to Travis their dreams of owning a home was put on hold and replaced with their lust for travel.

George reminded her why it was best to trust in and depend upon God’s plans. He helped her see the wisdom of God. Had they gotten burden down with a house so soon, they would have never gotten the opportunity to travel together. She agreed that travelling certainly trumped living in that one place for years and years and not ever seeing the world.

Even though she thought they should settled down, in one place, and buy a home, which was traditional. George said “...Where is that written? Loosen up, Zest.” Hosetta let it go.

Hosetta loved the opportunity of seeing the world with George, her best friend, her husband, and one of her heart-throbs. This was the life they dreamed of together!

They tried to see everything too and they took Oscar with them every where they went. By the time their son was 16 he had been to Europe, Asia, and Africa.

The early years of her marriage with George were basically pleasant. They were not perfect people, so they had the typical differences and conflicts most couples have when they are trying to become an intimate unit.

They used to fight over keeping the light on, at night, because she liked to read herself to sleep. He liked to go to sleep in complete darkness.

The bedroom light had a long chain that turned it on and off. So one night, George and Hosetta, stood upon the bed, turning the light on and off, looking at each other eyeball to eyeball, scowling, until the chain broke. She made a whooping sound “...I won!!!”

When the chain broke the light was on ALL NIGHT! Neither one of them slept that night. It took poor George hours to fix the broken chain. They finally compromised and got two night lights. She could read herself to sleep, on her side of the bed, and he could sleep in darkness.

In addition, every time they fought, Hosetta threatened to leave. She would go to the hall closet and get her suitcases and put them in the living next to the door. Then, smart aleck, George said, “Why don’t you just keep them at door, then you won’t have to pull them out every time we fight...” It was hilarious and they laughed about it for years.

The friendship went on into better days. God blessed their lives together. When Oscar was born he enhanced their blessings even more. Her heart would swell with joy every time she looked at her son.

Oscar added to their lives and made it more joyful, made them a family, and definitely added a little noise to their home life.

At Travis AFB their hopes and dreams continued to excite them, but George’s past struggles were lurking in the wings. “… ONE sinner destroy[ed]… MUCH GOOD…” (Ecclesiastes 9:18 NASB).

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