19 Years!

On May 10 Daryl and I celebrated 19 years of marriage. They have been blissfully, blessedly happy. Of course, we have had an occasional disagreement and a few bumps in the road, but have not had any major marital woes or personal tragedies to contend with. I cannot believe how lucky I am, to have found him, my soul mate, the only man I was ever able to be truly "me" with.

We met in a co-ed student rental house in Ann Arbor at the beginning of my junior/his senior year (fall 1984). Four friends and I had signed a lease for the 6 bedroom house the previous spring knowing we needed to find a 6th roomate in order for the house to be affordable. When we moved in that fall, we hung an ad on a bulletin board at the student union, and had a series of bizarre cretins somewhat unusual people come to our door to inquire about the room for rent. We were all liberal arts students, who didn't think much of a math oriented major like engineering, but by the time Daryl came to the door, he looked terrific by comparison to some of the previous would-be roomates. I wasn't home when he came by, but the others approved him in my absence, and told me "He's an engineer, but he's OK."

When I met him, what I thought was "Wow! He's cute!" So did all of my girlfriends, one of whom dated him briefly that year. I had a serious boyfriend at the time, so Daryl and I became close friends. As the school year drew to a close in the spring, both he and my boyfriend, (they were now acquaintances through me), another engineer, both got jobs at Arthur-Andersen and began commuting to work together. After a short time on the job, Daryl was transferred to the Chicago office. He called and came to visit often, including a special trip for my 21st birthday.

In the fall of 1985, my relationship with my boyfriend was on the rocks. I was applying to graduate school and needed to take the GRE exam. The day the test was being given locally was the date of my aunt's wedding in Chicago, so I arranged to go to Chicago early and take the test there, where it was offered the day before her wedding. I had asked Daryl to be my date to her wedding, as I had been his date to a wedding several months before. Sadly, the wedding was called off about a week before it was to take place. It was too late to change the test date at that point, so I travelled to Chicago, took the test, and visited with my aunt, who was having a difficult time. I also visited Daryl one evening. We met downtown, where he lived in a highrise apartment. He took me to the top of the John Hancock building for a drink, out for a Mexican dinner, and then to a blues bar to listen to music. It was a rainy, misty evening and I was wearing a cape I'd borrowed from my aunt. Several times he put his arm around me, and I thought he was being friendly, but when he kissed me I realized that he was being more than just friendly!

I had always been attracted to Daryl, but was now in the middle of a breakup with the guy I'd been dating for the past 1 1/2 years. When I got home, he and I had "the talk" and ended our relationship. I felt sad and wanted a little time to catch my breath, but Daryl was not interested in waiting. He came to visit the very next weekend, and was soon coming home every weekend to see me. We were soon a couple, and by December he had decided to quit his job and return to graduate school in January, choosing the University of Michigan because I was still there. I graduated in May 1986, we got engaged in November 1986, and married in May 1987.

We got married at Greenfield Village, a "village" of over 100 historic buildings in Dearborn, Michigan, that have been rescued, moved and restored by Henry Ford and his descendants. It is open to the public, and there are homes, businesses, shops, schools and churches, furnished and staffed by tour guides wearing period costumes who inform, demonstrate and educate the public about life in the 18th and 19th centuries.