Julie

My name is Julie, a native Californian. I am divorced, with two children, 19 and 15. Walter is a widowed father with three children, 16, 9, and 5. He is originally from El Salvador, and has lived here the last 20 years. We met in late summer of 2006. We are both school bus drivers and were contracted with the same school district. The beginning was slow...just a hello occasionally, a wave, a smile. Neither of us really had the courage to speak up. Three days before Thanksgiving, we were talking with other coworkers about the holiday, talking about the short work week. We walked outside to go back to our buses, and he asked me to go to breakfast. (We start our morning at 4:00am, so breakfast is usually around 8:30am, after we drop off our school kids.) From that day we were together almost every day. Talking, taking walks together, just getting to know each other and each others kids. So, here we are, only 18 months later! Within the first month of seeing each other, Walter asked me if I would consider marrying "a guy like him" whatever that meant...I said yes.