Michele

It was January 1990, the high school band and choir were going on a trip to the Oregon coast and then up to Vancouver B.C. I was in both the band and choir. He was in the choir, and one of the best male voices (even to this day) that the high school choir ever had. I loved to sing and was always trying to get solos...it wasn't easy for a freshman to get a solo though.( I did eventually get a duet with Jay.) Somehow during our time on the coast after a performance Jay and I started talking...well actually he was teasing me a lot.  The teasing got to the point that I started teasing back and then he threatened to throw me into the ocean, of course being the little goody-two-shoes that I was, I told him he wouldn't dare because Mr. Chapman (The band and choir director) told us all not to get into the water. He threw me into the ocean! I believe that was the moment I fell in love with him. We dated for a few months in high school and then he went of to the Army, while I finished school and then I joined the Army. Fast forward about 20 years and we find each other on facebook, he had just gotten divorced and I was about to get married. We talked a bit over the next couple years but nothing serious until I left my husband, who had become abusive over the 2 years we were married. We lived in Illinois and I moved back to Washington where my family is from. Jay was still living in Oregon at the time. Over the next few months we spent hours on the phone and on Facebook, skype, yahoo etc ...anyway we could stay connected to each other. Then one day, while I was in Oregon for a visit, we had gone to a park for a walk. Somehow we got on the subject of weddings. At this point I had honestly thought I would never get married again...I think there was a wedding at the park that day. He stopped me and said "When we get married it will be exactly what you want" Of course I had no idea how to respond for about 5 minutes. It may have been less than that but it felt like an eternity. He didn't have the ring ...as I later found out he was going to give me his grandmothers ring but it's yellow gold and since I don't like yellow gold we decided on something different. So after 23 years we are back together...and sometimes it feels like we haven't been apart at all. We now share a little two bedroom house with my two youngest children who are 15 and 13, & are hoping to buy a house sometime after the wedding.   Thanks for reading our story! Michele & Jay.