We're getting married!

So, how do two kids from Ukrainian Village in Chicago wind up together? Although we didn't know it for many years to come, our circles were intertwined much before we ever started grammar school together. Countless members in our Ukrainian community interacting and linking us to one another indirectly. Eventually, Natalka began school as Kindergartener at St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral School, where Slawko was also a student and in 3rd Grade. Imagine the countless times over the following years that we walked the same halls, sat in the same lunchroom, played during the same recess period, went to and from Friday's church service at St. Nicholas, performed at the same concerts and plays, or were featured in the school's bulletins and booklets simultaneously. We shared a place and time for years as kids and although three years and grades separated us, our neighborhood, school, ethnicity, culture, and language united us. We even were slotted to attend Lane Technical High School together, but our lives had a bit of separation ahead of us as Natalka moved to Florida with Mama. Almost four years passed before we were to connect again. A return to Chicago for Natalka's Debutante Ball. This time we connected on the level of "liking" each other. Now, Natalka 18 years old and Slawko 21 were different. She has blossomed into a beautiful young woman and he into a strapping young lad. Thereafter, an innocent and expanding list of phone calls and letters ensued. They had hours and hours of fun laughing, sharing, connecting, and laying the foundation for what would eventually bring them back together. All these years later, those words that filled those letters are still said, the sentiments still shared, and the feelings still felt. Years of separation, respective lives led, and only the barest of communications, stretching years apart, somehow did not undo what stood so long ago between us. We are still those same young adults laughing, smiling, hugging, kissing, holding hands, and chatting without end. We find ourselves breathing together, knowing each other's thoughts, sharing in each others aspirations and goals, planning our futures, discussing our pasts, and simply being the match and companion to one another. If people treated each other the way we do, the world would know peace.