I love to hear stories about how people met a significant person in their lives. Today I’ll share mine.
A few months after moving to the church I’d serve for 24 years, I was asked by Susan and John to officiate their wedding. I met with them for several sessions of pre-marital counseling — mostly my questions about their expectations on a variety of relationship and family systems topics.
At their outdoor wedding rehearsal I met the pianist, Nancy, and discussed the wedding music. She had written a piece in high school, and Susan, her best friend from first grade, made her promise to play it when she got married. Almost 20 years later she was going to fulfill that promise by playing her composition for her best friend’s wedding the next day.
At the rehearsal dinner, Nancy shared that she was divorced from a man she’d helped put through seminary before he decided he didn’t want to be a minister or her husband. I didn’t share that I was privately separated from my wife. After our divorce a few months later, I asked Nancy to go see the musical “Ain’t Misbehavin’” at our auditorium.
I gave Nancy my “Letterman Top Ten” reasons why we shouldn’t date. While she was not a member of my church, her sister and brother-in-law were church leaders and their daughters were the center of our youth group. Susan was her brother-in-law’s sister, so they are aunts to the same two girls. I didn’t want to mess up my friendships with all her family in our church if our relationship didn’t work out. We ignored the top ten list; it worked out.
Today is our 30th wedding anniversary. We came forward during Sunday worship to exchange our vows and rings. The date was chosen as the Sunday before a bi-state youth event I was leading; it happened to be Valentine’s Day.
For the past thirty years, I’ve had my answer to the question: How did you two meet? I simply say: “We met the night before I married her best friend”…. then wait for a response.
What are some stories you have about how you met significant people in your life? How did your past set the stage for and prepare you for those meaningful relationships?
Love this one, Wally. Happy Anniversary to you and to Nancy!
“We met the night before I married her best friend”. Love it. I can just imagine the first thoughts that might pop into one’s mind at hearing that statement 🙂
I have a somewhat similar story whenever I’m asked when I met my wife, and I tell them “on the day I married her”. We were penfriends back in the late 60’s through to the end of 1971 – her living in Japan and I in Aotearoa New Zealand. We exchanged letters, cassette tapes and telephone calls (very expensive in those days). I travelled to Japan to marry her but due to unforeseen delays on the journey I arrived much later than expected. I arrived in her hometown three days after I left mine. That was the very first time I was able to with her in person. That was 51 years ago and I have never for one moment regretted taking that leap of faith that she and I were meant for each other.
I love this. thank you Barry