Our story is one of longevity. We met in high school in 1981. Bobby was a new student at Forest Glen High School and I noticed him immediately. I mean, after all he was the hot, new football player! Bobby doesn’t recall this, but I will NEVER forget it, one morning as we passed each other in the hallway HE WINKED AT ME! I then melted. That wink began our love story. We became a “thing” and as was commonly known in those days started “going together”. We attended both junior and senior prom together. Senior prom my mom was giddily insistent that I complete my prom attire with her new, beautiful, ruby earrings. I was hesitant fearing I’d lose them, but mom was certain that I’d return with her cherished jewels. I did. Well, kind of. I came home with one earring. I still tease Bobby that he HAD to have ingested the other. As young love would have it, we dated on again, then off again, cycling through the “I don’t know what I want” stage of our lives. We ultimately parted ways mid 1980’s and then life happened. We each went in our own direction and started families. I’d be remiss if I didn’t admit how often I thought about Bobby during those many years and wondered if life was being good to him. There were occasional times that our paths crossed during that 37 year “break” and my stomach still got those ever familiar butterflies when I was so lucky to give a quick “hello”. We reconnected via facebook in 2023. Bobby was single and I was, well…unhappy. Here we are today! Now 44 years from that first wink and they still melt me! We have rediscovered each other and are seeded in a love so true that it’s almost scary. We so value our time together. Whether dancing and singing in the kitchen, cruising the country roads searching for the occasional deer, bear, eagle, blue heron or whatever wildlife we may encounter, watching movies, sharing our families, life is fantastic! Even menial household chores have become fun and filled with laughter. The world has come full circle for us and I am ever so grateful that God has allowed us to rekindle that which was never really absent at all. “Remembered joys are never past. At first the fountain, stream then sea, They were, they are, they yet shall be.” How ironic that the above words were my senior quote! I truly believe in fate and God’s timing.