Dedicated to Dan, my wonderful husband
Submitted by Anonymous
We were both 13 years old when we last saw each other in 1959. We were only 10 when we met. During elementary grades sixth, seventh and eighth Dan had a crush on me. But, of course, he was too shy then to tell me. However, he carved our initials on the tree in his back yard as a symbol of his love.
Fast-forward 45 years. I was still living in New Orleans. An elementary school reunion was being planned months in advance to try to contact as many people as possible. Dan, who lived in San Diego for the past 35 years, created a website for classmates to post their bio and a photo. We were all so happy to be getting back in touch with one another. Of course, bios indicate who is single and such. So he emailed me. We corresponded for several months and found a “real” connection. Then his mom passed and he returned to New Orleans. Well, I had to attend the funeral to pay my respects (and to check out this guy that I had been emailing.) Well, we had dinner that night with a few other classmates and he returned to San Diego. I thought I would never see him again.
But, never say never!
We fell in love and had a two-year long distance relationship. He visited New Orleans ten times during the first year. So I realized that he was really serious. I then visited San Diego a couple of times and loved the area. But, what were we to do? We both had good jobs and didn’t want to risk all we had achieved in our perspective places of employment to move.
Katrina came along. Well, my job was eliminated. My home flooded. Things were definitely different in New Orleans.
In December of 2005 (4 months after Katrina) my two daughters gave me a 60th Birthday Party at one of the few restaurants that had reopened after the hurricane. That night Dan surprised me with a beautiful engagement ring. I was on top of the world and have been ever since then!
We married in New Orleans on January 6, 2007 at a chapel where I attended High School. Classmates from our grade school were there to wish us well.
We went to Hawaii for our honeymoon! We traveled to three islands and had a wonderful time. We plan to return to Hawaii every 5 years on our anniversary!
I moved to San Diego and love being with my true love!