I was told I should not have been born, Why Mom?

If I had said Yes to James Dean!... Issue #37

If Only I... were more thankful for my Mom not accepting or changing her date just to be with James Dean that September day in 1955. Had she accepted, there would have been no Ollie to share these stories with you today.

Starting my senior year in high school, Mom knew I loved driving, especially fast driving, and used the techniques she had taught me to drive a stick shift. This was due to her racing life prior to meeting and marrying my Dad.

As my Mom shared the times of her racing career as a young, hot Swedish Blonde woman going to weekend events around the country, she learned a thing or two about driving.

Mom used to race her Mercedes Gullwing 300, her MG, and, I am sure, a few others. In fact, she used to trade cars off with James Dean and use his Porsche 356. Mom would hand over her Gullwing. They had a connection of some kind.

James Dean asked Mom to go with him to a party one September night. Mom, being who she was, had a date, and she said she was already attending another event that evening, so she had to say no to James. Thank you, God!

This was the ultimate of infamous nights for the Hollywood legend; this was the date that his life was torn away, crashing his Porsche and passing away, sadly. RIP

It happened on September 30th, 1955, as he had left the party and was traveling to a racing event he was due to race in the following day. He was only 24 years old, and my Mom was just shy of 21.

Now, it makes sense why I was not meant to be here. If Mom hadn’t already organized a date that night, I would not be this lucky—I'm sure of that! Ollie.

….ifOnlyi…. short stories are published chronologically and follow my life growing up in California from 4 years old. If you’ve just found me, the stories will come together when you start reading from….Issue #1