Michelle

Where to begin...     April 2010...I started my first job as an RN at Brynn Marr Hospital. Patrick was already working there. I’d seen him around a few times, but never spoke to him, and he had never spoke to me either. Being the naturally outgoing person that I am, being in a new city and new job and not knowing anyone, I was used to going up to random people at work and striking up conversations. So one night at work, while walking through another unit in the hospital, I noticed Patrick reading a book from a series that I had read; I went up to him and started asking him about it...If he liked it and such. He was really short with me and kind of blew me off. I just had the attitude of “ookkaayy...? whatever” Little did I know at that time that he is naturally shy and skeptical of people he doesn’t know.   May 2010...Our first time working together on the same unit. He had to fill in for like 2 hours on my unit b/c someone didn’t show up. It was just him and me with 12 patients, all sleeping so we just talked. It was our first real conversation...and what did we talk about? Both of our (at the time) significant others. Both of us were having problems and didn’t want to face it. After this though, he actually began to acknowledge me when we passed in the hallways or when I was walking around the hospital with one of our mutual friends, we would stop and talk.    September 2010...My (at the time) boyfriend and I broke up. Patrick and I began to talk more regularly. Come to find out him and his (at the time) girlfriend had broken up in the summer of 2010. One night at work in late September, he came over to my unit to see me. In the middle of our conversation he said, “Well, you should take me out to dinner sometime.” I jokingly said, “I don’t pay for the first date.” He said, “Then I’ll just have to take you out then.” I wrote my number on a piece of paper as he was leaving to go back to his part of the hospital and he texted me almost immediately so I would have his number too. (Come to find out from him later, the reason he brought up going out with me is b/c one of the other women made a comment about me making a cute couple with another man from work and Patrick said to himself, “Oh hell no, I don’t want her with anyone else before I get a chance to date her.”) From that day on, we texted all night at work, talked for hours on the phone after getting off of work until I would fall asleep in my bed. We clicked fabulously, talking about everything, and absolutely nothing all at the same time. But I was still reluctant to go out with him, having just gotten out of a year and a half long relationship, and also having been married for 7 years prior to that. But even still, we kept talking.   October 23, 2010...He was in Chapel Hill at the lake with his best friend fishing. I had just gotten off of working a 13 hour shift and had to make the 5 hour drive to Charlotte, NC with my children to see my parents for my son’s 7th birthday. We talked the entire 5 hours (to which I probably owe him my life for me not falling asleep at the wheel). After getting to Charlotte, I crashed and slept for a few hours, but as soon as I woke up, we began texting again. After dinner with my family, I went out for drinks with my best friend that I haven’t seen in months, of course, gushing all about this “new guy”. After leaving the bar and dropping off my best friend, I called him. We talked for I don’t even know how long, until I fell asleep with my phone. (Found out later that his best friend was giving him crap the whole weekend for being on the phone with me!)   After I got back to Jacksonville, NC I set up a date for us to meet at the park, just to talk, no big deal. We have been a couple ever since. And the rest is history...   He proposed on June 16, 2011 in my parent’s kitchen with my children helping him hold the ring box. It was the most perfect, sweet, romantic thing anyone had ever done for me. He got down on one knee, and of course I was crying. After a little speech about how much he loved me and promised to cherish me forever, he said, “Will you do the honor of becoming my wife and loving me forever?” And I said “YES!”   As we begin this journey to spend the rest of our lives together, we realize that God, each other, and the children are the most important things in the world. That love, support and teamwork, trust, and communication are the vital tools to making a successful marriage.