Our Love Story

We have an interesting love story, with a very fast meeting to marraige; and we hope reading it might bless and encourage you.

It all started in the late fall of 1981. I was out of college and working at my chosen profession of broadcast engineer in upstate New York. My grandparents lived most of the year in Sarasota, Florida, and wanting to live near them for many different reasons, not the least of which we loved fishing, hunting, and playing golf together; I decided to move to be near them.

So I packed up my old Ford camper van, a moped on the front so I could leave the camper hooked up at a camp ground; and headed south to seek my fortune in the great free state of Florida!

Arriving at my grandparents, one of the first things I did was turn on their television, to accustom myself with the local television stations, so I could decide where I might like to apply for an engeering job.

Falling Head Over Heels

As I turned the dial on that old television my grandfather had in his sun porch I came upon a young, chubby, Italian lady doing film reviews. As I watched her, I could see a lifetime into the future to a life that we could have together. If only I could meet and seduce her!

A check of the local newspaper found an advertisement for a bench technician, assembling and programming the old style cable channel selection boxes. I took the plunge, sending an application and resume to their personel department, and started the inevitable wait for a phone call. That call came a week later, and I dashed on my moped to an interview.

Once in her office, the personel director preceded to show me what looked like a pile of 100 applications at her right hand, and a single one, mine, at her left. She told me she had called every one of those candidates all morning, and I was the first person to answer the phone! That phone I should add, was the pay phone outside the office at the KOA campground I was staying at.

While we chatted for about half an hour, all I could see when I looked at her, was that cute chubby Italian gal I'd seen on their locally produced film review show! I really had it bad!

Well, she hired me right then and there, and I started work the following Monday!

Trying hard to forget that dark haired beauty while I settled into my new job was not easy, but I did. I got along well with the rest of the staff and my direct boss, and was really enjoying the job I was doing.

Just two weeks after starting my new job, I started exploring the rest of the facility, and trying to figure out a meeting plan!

Executing The Plan

A few days later, as I pulled out of the parking lot after work on my moped, there she was, getting into the passenger seat of a coworker's car for the trip home. Surprised at the possibility she was seeing someone, I zipped over to her side of the car and introduced myself. Taking her obvious cue that she was not in a relationship with the driver, I asked her out on a date. She said OK, and we worked the details out the next day on our lunch hour.

She was still living with her parents, so I showed up for our first date at her parents on my moped, and she drove us to dinner and a film

Call Me Crazy

On that very first date, without any hesitation, I mapped out for her the life I saw us living, starting with a simple marraige ceremony and honeymoon, 2 kids, and a lifetime together. Yes indeed, I proposed on that very first date! Needless to say, in this day and age I'd probably be labled a crazy stalker!

Her response was not unexpected, I was moving too fast for her! However after a couple of weeks, she later told me that all she could see everyplace she looked, was my face; so she said YES!

That yes, came around Christmas, and my family as they often did, came down to Florida so the we could all be together for the holiday. My grandparents of course quickly learned to love my soon to be bride, and with my parents and sister all in the same place, we went ahead and planned the wedding, which would be just 4 months away.

Now, We Check All The Boxes

During that brief 4 months, we talked. About everything. Starting that she was raised Roman Catholic, and I was a Southern Baptist, however in her older brother's car just before we met, she had accepted Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior, and left the Catholic church and was now going to a protestant church. Indeed, our second date was to go to her baptism! So OK, we're on the same page faith wise.

We discussed everything else we could think of. How many kids and how they are disciplined, political leanings, food likes and dislikes, outside friends, household chores, who kept the checkbook, you name it, we chatted about everything a couple would encounter their first few years together.

Most of all we discussed the fact that I would never, ever, raise my voice to her or strike her, and that I expected the same in return. If there was a problem between us, we would quietly discuss the situation and come to an amicable solution!

A Christ Centered Relationship

As Christians, we live our lives for Christ first, then each other, then our children. Having your relationship priorities in the right order is the most important thing you can do to have a successful marraige.

Overcoming

Have we had challenges? Sure we have, but we meet each and every one of them with prayer, and God has delivered us from every single thing that has come our way. One of the largest issues we have had to deal with is that our youngest son, born back in 1987 is profoundly autistic. With no autism schools available in Sarasota county back then, we home schooled him. When services were finally available, he was high school age, however the intensive home schooling had him doing far better than the kids his age when he went to public preschool.

At 39 years old now, our youngest is still with us, and will be the rest of our natural lives.

I should point out that all but one of the other couples we knew with autistic kids back then were divorced within a year of diagnosis. The only difference between us and the others, was our deep abiding faith in God!

We of course over the years have had many other challenges. Poor health has plagued us both at times over the decades, and indeed my own months long cancer scare *(Story Link) in 2015 was extremely hard on my bride. Putting Jesus first though, we get through every hardship we encounter with faith, peace, and joy!

Decades Later, Still Honeymooning

When I look back on how we got together, it is so apparent to both of us that God was in every single detail of our meeting. We now joke regularly that actually, we are in an arranged marraige, put together and ordained by God Himself!

After all this time, we are still best friends. We enjoy each other's company no matter what we are doing. Laying in bed watching a film in the evening while holding hands, love making like we were newly wed, or just sitting on the porch of our farm house looking over our property and the many animals roaming around, I never want to imagine a life without my true love!