At last!

Our story is as unusual as it is long and complicated! We have known each other for some 33 years. Karen was married to a friend Michael Gemo (one of my brother Greg’s best friends) on September 7, 1991. She quickly became best friends with my sister-in-law Laura. In the early days of their marriage Mike & Karen, Greg & Laura and I all lived in apartments in the same Beecher apartment building. (We were all pretty close, it was our own little ‘Melrose Place’.) As Karen & Laura began having children and we each eventually moved our own ways we were still a very tight knit group. However, tragedy struck in April of 1999 when Karen’s husband Mike died suddenly leaving her with two young children: Kate age 6 and Zach age 2. Some time after that Karen and I dated for a short while, but when that ended we rarely saw each other. Fast forward fourteen years, we reunited! (Just in time to see her son Zach graduate from high school). In January of 2015 we moved in together. In July of that year we welcomed Kate’s daughter Zoey into the world, that October we saw Zach off to the Marines. In August of 2016 we bought a house together and Mason started 7th grade in Beecher, in June of 2017 we saw Zach and Ashley joined in matrimony and in November of 2019 welcomed their son Carter. We both love music! We both love to travel. We live for good food, good drinks & good company!

We were engaged at approximately 140 MPH going into Turn 3 of Indianapolis Motor Speedway prior to the 103rd running of the Indy 500. Our driver was Larry Foyt, the President of A.J. Foyt enterprises and former IndyCar and NASCAR driver. (He is the biological grandson and adopted son of A.J. Foyt.) This once-in-a-lifetime experience was made possible by the president’s of both Chicagoland Speedway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Chevrolet, the IMS Track Rescue Team and especially our friend Paul Hovel from CLS & IMS who made this all possible. Including the champagne and our own paparazzi! (Paul we will forever be indebted to you!)