I left off in the last blog, “My Memoir: Esther LeBaron McDonald de Spencer — And More Perils of Polygamy: My Honeymoon — Part 19-R,” saying:

As you can imagine, it hurt to be left out on my honeymoon, no less — left standing there for an hour in the background watching the man I was so in love with neglect me as if I didn’t exist while he lovingly looked for and picked out an expensive gift for his first wife, Harolyn (not her real name). It was soon to be her thirty-first birthday. Even so, he not only ignored me but bought me “nada.” Welcome to Polygamy 101.

I learned later that Harolyn, fifteen years my senior and extremely jealous of me, was immensely upset that Bill went ahead and married me totally against her will! And now he had me on a honeymoon in Chihuahua for a week — which must’ve left Bill feeling at least a little guilty knowing his first two wives were left keeping up the homefront and grieving that he had married me!

Because of this and because Harolyn held and controlled the family purse strings, Bill wanted to make points with her by buying her an extravagant present that actually came from his “own” money, for a change, not hers! (I was learning too quickly that all this was/is par for the course in polygamous marriages.)

On our honeymoon, to further top it off, he left me alone out in the car, for five hours, with nothing to do!! Not even a radio to listen to! While he “did business and missionary work” with a buddy or two:

“I can’t have you accompany me to the meetings because these men have met Harolyn. Can’t let them know I have more than one wife,” he explained to me.

Then, despite his promised seven-day honeymoon, about five days in, he suddenly told me: “We are going home now. I need to cut our honeymoon short by two days. Must get back to the colony to take care of some business.” I think the truth is more like he simply missed his other two wives, and was not that interested in me! What do you think? Either way, I felt shortchanged.

So we returned home within five days of what turned out to be, all-in-all, a stressful, rather uneventful honeymoon — other than mosquitoes entered our unscreened hotel window and bit me on both my eyelids. So my eyes were partly swollen for my all-important honeymoon pictures. You shall hear, in my upcoming book, more about the “finer points” of my honeymoon and my initiation into Bill’s harem. I promise! I can hardly wait to tell you, LOL!

You shall hear, in my upcoming book, more about the “finer points” of my honeymoon and my initiation into Bill’s harem — and him into me. I promise! I can hardly wait to tell you, LOL!

(Continued March 19, 2018: “My Memoir: Esther LeBaron McDonald de Spencer — And More Perils of Polygamy: My Honeymoon — Part 19-T”)