We first met at a party at our mutual friends - Kelsey and Ryan Murphy's - house in October 2019. I wasn't interested in dating at the time, and he remembers me as the girl who ate her pizza backwards (crust to tip).

Matthew is good friends with my cousin Cecilia’s husband Nick. In late 2020, Nick asked Matthew to be godfather of his daughter Esther, who was due in February 2021; Cecilia asked me to be the godmother. On February 8, 2021, our goddaughter Esther Sue was born; unfortunately, God called Esther to Himself that day. Matthew and I reconnected at the funeral at St. Barnabas that following week. There was a blizzard that day that produced ~6” of snow. I rode with Matthew to the cemetery because we were the godparents and I figured he did not know many people at the funeral (he also has a truck, which made me feel safer!). In the two weeks following the funeral, there were three separate times where close family/friends hinted that Matthew and I should go out. Cecilia and Nick even planned a couple small group parties so that Matthew and I could get to know each other. Eventually, Matthew got my number, we started texting, and then we planned to go out for ice cream! Our sweet goddaughter Esther Sue has been watching over her godparents from Heaven this whole time!

Our first date was at Clementines at the Lake Saint Louis Meadows. We had alcoholic ice cream - Pink Champagne Sorbet and a flavor called The Dude. We then walked around and talked for a while. When we finally sat down on a bench, I asked Matthew, “So, is this a date?” He responded, “Do you want it to be?” I said yes, so we made it “official.” We walked around some more, and then drove a couple miles down the road to the cemetery to visit our goddaughter Esther’s grave to pray. At the cemetery, we texted a picture of us to Cecilia to let her know we were on a date; we told her that her daughter knew before she did that we were dating!

Matthew planned the entire proposal, and managed to keep it all a secret - even though he had asked for my dad’s blessing three weeks before. Fr. Stephen Schumacher was saying the Latin Mass that morning. He is one of our favorite priests, and so Matthew convinced me to invite my Mom and my brother Rusty and his wife Cayley to come to “Schumacher Sunday” to give Latin Mass a try. Matthew had also told me to wear a specific dress to Mass because it was one of his favorites (I did not think anything of that - he asked so nicely, and it came up in conversation). After Mass, Matthew finished getting everything put away quicker than usual. We were talking to my cousins - Cecilia and Nick; Matthew - in hindsight - had been trying to find a point to ask me to go into the church. Before he could say anything, I happened to see my Dad in the parking lot - he had been out of town, and typically only came home early if something was wrong. I went outside all concerned and asked why he was here; thankfully he thought of a quick response that he had gotten poison ivy all over his legs and needed to come in. Before I could give this much more of a thought - or question why my Dad would dress up in church clothes to stop by St. Barnabas to say he had poison ivy - Matthew came over and told me he wanted to show me something in church. At this point, you would think I would have thought something was up, but Matthew had been replenishing items for St. Barnabas for a while, so this was not strange. As we were walking down the aisle of the church, Matthew started talking, and what he was saying finally made me think “oh my goodness, this is it!” Matthew got down on one knee and asked me to marry him - in front of Our Lord in the church where we reconnected.

Matthew’s response to the stories 😂