You could probably make a movie about these two, and maybe one day someone will :). Here is their story as it was told at the wedding by one of the happiest men on Earth:
“Three years ago I found myself living alone for the first time in my adult life. It was an emotional time for me and I felt that I needed a change. Living in Michigan, where I had retired from a rewarding career as a firefighter and paramedic, I decided to leave. I moved to Marco Island Florida; a place I had vacationed every year for the past 30 years. It was a good way for me to gather my thoughts, regroup and get my general disposition to a better place. I eventually grew to really enjoy my time alone and had no intentions of ever changing this new life I had discovered.
However, my life as I knew it was about to change. I was having dinner by myself at a local tiki bar on the water one night, talking to a friend, when SHE walked in. A beautiful woman with kind eyes. I hoped the host would seat her by me, and as luck would have it, he sat her right next to me. She smiled ( I melted ) and asked me if the food was good at the bar. I told her it was great! It really wasn’t, but I told her it was, for fear of her leaving and going somewhere else to eat. We talked for a couple of hours. From the beginning of the night I knew something was different. I felt I knew her from the moment we met.
At the end of the evening we made plans to meet on the beach the next day at the hotel she was staying at. I was going to bring my jet ski to the beach and take her on a tour around the island. However, I was so smitten with her that night, I forgot to ask her for her phone number. I searched the whole beach the next day, looking for her, but couldn’t find her. Apparently some business friends of hers had made other plans for her and she couldn’t make it to the beach. I was afraid I would never see her again, and thought maybe I had missed the opportunity of a lifetime. Why did I not get her phone number the night before?! I decided that I would try to find her somehow at one of the many establishments on the island that night. After all, she was on vacation, and I thought there would be a good chance she would be out on the town. The first place I went to that night was a popular local brewery/restaurant. I was sitting at the bar talking to a man about my dilema, when suddenly she appeared across the bar from me. Our eyes met at the same time, she smiled and seemed excited to see me. I certainly was excited to see her, and immediately stopped my conversation with the man next to me, jumped off the bar stool, and ran around the bar to be with her. She was even prettier than I remembered, and I told her she was beautiful. We had another amazing night, getting to know each other. I never thought it was possible to really fall in love at what was basically first sight. But I had! I knew I couldn’t let this go, and hoped she felt the same. Words can’t describe the incredible comfort and desire I felt for her. I truly had never in my life felt anything like this before. She went back to Cincinnati, and I felt compelled to call her to tell her my feelings about her. We talked for a long time. She told me she had been feeling the same way about me. I knew she was sincere, because she came back to the island two weeks later. I went to the airport to meet her, and when I saw her I was reminded of just how beautiful she was. And once again the first words out of my mouth were, you are so beautiful! This time I kissed her! We kissed a lot on that trip. We’ve been kissing a lot ever since. I hope we never stop kissing a lot! Sweetheart, you know I love you more than anything in this world. Here’s to our night, and the rest of our life!”
