That's Amore

While visiting me in Augusta in between semesters at FSC, Lauren and I made a stop in a jewelry store to get a necklace of mine repaired. While there, she started perusing the engagement ring section, typical of any girlfriend who has been in a relationship for what was going on three years. She wasn't very subtle about wanting me to ask. One of the rings she had picked out as a favorite, not only because she had tried it on and it was already fitted perfectly to her finger, was so unique I could never have forgotten it, and neither did she. Every time we were back in Augusta, passing by the jewelry store, she would joke about the ring. Little did she know, I ended up buying that ring less than a year later, and was simply waiting for the perfect opportunity to pop the question. That question came when my family visited Italy and Croatia over the Summer of 2019. My Great Grandparents and Grandmother lived in what is now Zadar, Croatia during the height of World War II. They had lived there their whole lives, but desiring a life free from hardship and violence sparked an eventual exodus form the war torn city. Seeing first hand where my family came from, and what they had to endure, was monumentally moving for me. It was incredible seeing the home where my Great Grandfather, Romano, was born, seeing the office he used to work in, and seeing the church (which was originally built in 1066) where he married my Great Grandmother, Dora. It was outside that church, on the shores of the Adriatic, where I asked Lauren to marry me. We sincerely hope you will be able to join us, to celebrate the answer to that question, and the next chapter of our lives.