The Golden WeddingThe Golden Wedding

Josh and Mari were divinely destined for one another long before they even knew each other! Born and raised in Hatillo, Puerto Rico, Joshua made the decision at 17 to move to Texas. He settled with his dad in a little house in Balch Springs, Texas, not knowing he was only 10 minutes away from his soulmate. Mari had spent most of her life at her family home in Balch Springs, where she attended high School, and her favorite thing to do every day was play tennis. Right next to those tennis courts, where she spent so much time every day, was a running track that was open to the public. Josh would happen to run at that same track... unknowingly only feet away from his future wife. Eventually, Josh answered the call to serve and joined the Army Reserves in 2014. He was stationed at the Naval Air Station-Joint Reserve Base (NAS-JRB) in Fort Worth. Mari on the other hand, never had any intentions of joining, but instead dreamed of attending university and getting a degree. Late into her senior year however, she impulsively decided she would join the Army Reserves. She joined in 2015 just before graduating, and was also stationed at NAS-JRB. Even though they were in the same unit, they still never met due to having different jobs, and in 2017 Josh decided to go Active Duty and was sent to Fort Drum, New York. Mari also decided to go Active Duty in 2018, and you guessed it, she was stationed at Fort Drum. Fortunately for Mari, she had a friend in her unit who had also recently gone active duty and was sent to Drum a month before she arrived. Keegan was a great friend who gave her rides around the base and helped her out while she settled in New York. One day, when they were hanging out, Lund casually asked if she knew Joshua Golden, "he was at JRB too," he said. She had no idea who he was talking about but later realized that she had received a friend request on Facebook from said person. She accepted his request and their first small encounter happened one snowy day in late 2019 when Mari was sent to Josh's hangar to pick up a part they needed for a helicopter. At this point, with the help of Lund, she had purchased her first manual car, a 2007 Subaru WRX. When she pulled up to Josh's hangar, he happened to be walking out with a couple of friends. She noticed him looking at her and her car but didn't realize who he was. Later, Josh DM'd her, "Think u were walking to my hangar in the snow. u gotta subie?" At first they didn't really talk to each other. It wasn't until they were both deployed to Afghanistan that they started to message more and more. They were on different bases, but as a Blackhawk Crew Chief, Mari spent all of her time in the sky going from base to base. Josh on the other hand, wasn't as busy with his job, and decided to volunteer to help his Tech Supply called "Falcon Express." Almost every day, Mari and her crew, would fly to Bagram to pick up or drop off parts/people. One day she received a picture of her helicopter from Josh asking "was this you?" She would receive texts here and there from Josh but they still wouldn't talk much. Then, on November 20, 2019, an Apache Helicopter from Mari's base crashed into the side of a mountain. Mari and the rest of her aircrew would be sent out to recon the crash site. Since the two pilots lost their lives serving their country, the base would go "black." This meant that all internet and phone services would be cut off to prevent the spread of the devastating news before the family was notified. Once Mari was able to text again, she saw a message from Josh asking if she was ok, since he had heard that a helicopter crashed. She was touched by his care for her well-being, and it was at this point that they started talking every. single. day. It wasn't until they returned from deployment that they would go on their first date, and the rest was history. They immediately hit it off and were inseparable from that day forward.