My True Love, Part 3

The Irishman says all the best movies are in trilogies, so click here for part 1 or here for part 2.

Now, when we left off, the Irishman had just moved across the pond and set up the "lad pad" in Florida. After 2 years of "You've Got Mail" we finally lived in the same country city!

After looking that summer, the Irishman got a job working in the financial aid department at the same university where we worked at summer camp. His apartment was covered with Liverpool posters. It only was frantically cleaned when people were coming over. It was the "Lad Pad." It was good times.

That Christmas we both went home to our respective homes. It was our last Christmas before we got married and amazingly enough we both had a white Christmas. That doesn't sound like much until you consider it was the first white Christmas for either of us EVER.

Now, you do not move to another country for your sweetheart unless things are getting pretty serious. We'd talked about marriage a bit. We even had our own unofficial prenup agreement: The one of us who was NOT living in their native country would get to choose a) where we got married b) where we spend any Christmases c) the names of any children.

SIDE NOTE: The funny thing is that we both thought we would be in Ireland by now. Perhaps it is for the best that we have not had any luck in the children department yet. I am not sure that Star Wars or Liverpool Football Club is the best source for names...

Anyway, that year for his birthday, the Irishman asked for a trip to New York. I had slight suspicions about his intent unknowingly went along with his request. Just after dark on his birthday, we went to the top of the Empire State Building. As we looked over the lights of the city, the Irishman mumbled something like, "Oh flog it I'll never see these people again" and then got down on one knee.

He said that with him I would "Never Walk Alone." (Most of you are swooning at that. Those who know that this is a song affiliated with his favorite soccer team are rolling your eyes!) Needless to say, I said yes! We proceeded to call everyone we know and to buy an ornament for our Christmas tree. It is the first ornament on the tree each year. (We are cheesy like that!)

We took pictures all over the city for the rest of the weekend. I have not shown these pictures to anyone. Why? You see I was not the girl who had been planning her wedding her whole life. The first wedding I'd ever been to was Rachel's and I was a bridesmaid. I somehow had it in my head that you wore the ring on the right had until you got married. (I think I can hear you all laughing at me from here!)

Yep. I wore my new ring on the wrong hand all over New York. I hadn't planned on sharing that ever, but I needed a picture here. That and I've had a few years to get over it...

When we got back to Florida, we decided that with apartment leases, school schedules, family travel, and the like we needed to get married in July. That was 4 months away. The lady at church actually laughed at us when we said we wanted to get married there in four months. (Then I started to cry and she changed her tune...)

In the midst of planning a wedding in four months I got a phone call. The Irishman rode his bike to work every morning. On the morning of April 4, 2005 he was hit by a car while in a crosswalk in front of a McDonald's. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital and somehow only broke his shoulder. Thankfully my mom was in town to help plan the wedding and (as it turned out) take care of my fiance.

Thanks to some good friends though we lived through the broken bone and used the "golden shoulder" for a down payment on our house the next summer and successfully planned our wedding for July 16, 2005.

We were on a tight budget but very happy with the way our wedding turned out. It was perfect for us! There were a fair number of Irish that loved an excuse to travel across the pond were able to come. Our friend Denise Felice did our wedding pictures as her present to us.

We stopped off at the camp where we met to take pictures as well. Plunkett sang for us. Sue sang performed. It was a wonderful day that we've heard went on well after we left for our honeymoon!

So all in all, that is the very long-winded answer to "How did you meet?"

Happy Valentine's Day!