Double The Dulin

Our story is one that easily could not have been. A different choice here, a move that never happened, a shirt that was never untucked. Our story is how fate itself intervened at every possible juncture to ensure that we landed in each other’s lives. Once we did, we took it from there. This is how Gentry met Ollie. Gentry was Indiana born and raised. Floated around the westside he was a Senior in high school. Battalion Commander in his JROTC class, he was well known, but no one hardly knew him. He was reserved and stayed mostly to himself. School, home, and a little ROTC were all he really knew. Ollie was Illinois grown. Seeing many different aspects of Chicago, on a happenstance her family moved to Indiana in the middle of her JR year. Also invested in JROTC herself, she continued where she had left off at a new school in a new world. Our first conversation (That Gentry remembers at least) was about pop-tarts. As Battalion Commander, Gentry oversaw the PX (which is basically a candy store in the school). Ollie everyday at the same time would ask “Can I have a pop-tart, the brown sugar ones”. Gentry was oblivious to all advances, but Ollie had her eye on her prize already. This one moment led to going to basketball games, searching for scholarships together, and getting accepted to the same college. Time moves fast. Life is even faster. They soon found themselves committed to one another. Inseparable, no problem felt large, no obstacle too much to overcome. They knew that not even the world against them would be enough to tear them apart. Relying on one another in trials no one would hope to be in. Through homelessness and loss these two would learn with and build with each other in ways that only real love and courage would allow. These troubles would soon turn into joy. Finding their careers and purposes in life. Establishing a tribe that loves them as much as they love each other. Building and owning their first and now second home together. They have always found a way to build the other up. And now, we enter the stage where there is no more building each other but becoming and building as one.