La Dolce Vita: The Sweet Life with Three Sons: The Story of Us

Friday, December 15, 2017

The Story of Us

Some of you know the story on how Joe and I met, but since today is our 27th wedding anniversary I thought I'd share it here for the first time. It's a good story ...

Once upon a time there was a girl named Maria who was an English major at the University of Georgia. She was an excellent student (except in math) and loved nothing more than sitting under the oak trees on campus discussing Shakespeare and poetry. She studied abroad, almost joined the Peace Corps, and once she received her degree decided to continue her studies in order to obtain a teacher certification in secondary education.

Around the time Maria was sitting under the oak tree discussing Shakespeare, there was a guy named Joe who recently graduated from Penn State University with a degree in mechanical engineering. He was hired by SRS and promptly moved south ... mainly for the abundance of golf courses. He rented an apartment, bought a state-of-the-art stereo system, vacationed in England (to attend the Ryder Cup) and Ireland (to play golf), and like any good Catholic boy joined a local church.

One late November Maria came home and her mother announced that she had signed up the entire family to work at the Spaghetti Dinner fundraiser at St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church. Maria was not happy. She had better things to do than volunteer at a church dinner, but that evening she found herself serving the garlic bread in the dinner line.

As it happened, Joe had purchased a ticket for this dinner. He had just come from the golf course, and with the intention of getting his dinner to go he picked up a tray and got in line. He noticed a dark-haired girl serving the garlic bread, and wouldn't you know that just when he got to her the bread ran out! So while the kitchen staff was scrambling to bring in another tray of garlic bread, Maria and Joe chatted for a few minutes.

The bread arrived and Joe made the decision to NOT take the food home after all but to eat it right there. He took a seat at a table and kept his eye on the girl. When she moved over to work the dessert table, he pulled out his wallet and bought some cookies.

Incredibly, they did not exchange names, so the next Monday Joe called the church office and asked the priest for the name of the girl who was serving the garlic bread at the Spaghetti Dinner. Now, the priest knew the family very well, but he always got confused about the daughters -- he knew one was named Maria and the other was Laura, but he didn't know which was which. But he had an idea. He told Joe that the girl and her family always came to the 9:30 Mass on Sunday morning.

The next Sunday Maria was sitting at Mass with her sister, brother and parents. During the Sign of the Peace she turned to shake hands with the people sitting behind them and there was Joe -- who usually went to Mass Saturday night -- smiling at her. For the next couple of Sundays Joe faithfully sat behind Maria and her family at Mass, and in mid-December during the Advent Reconciliation Service they stood in line together and talked the entire time when they should have been examining their conscience. The priest (a visiting one) was probably confused when first one, then the other, entered the confessional smiling.

Their first date was a 50's themed New Year's Eve party.

Six months later they were engaged.

And six months after that (just a little over a year from when they met) they were married in that very same church. The priest who played matchmaker officiated.