We're getting married!

We first met in Fall 2022 as neighbors in a building in San Francisco's Sunset District. I lived upstairs and Şamil lived on the second level. My former downstairs neighbor passed along the number of the newest, most responsible roommate to coordinate garage spots, garbage can moving, and other neighborly activities at the building on 19th Avenue in San Francisco. During a particularly busy performing season, I kept losing my key. And this was really how we first got chatting - Şamil bounding down the stairs to open the door to my grateful thank you's. I WAS scattered during that time but more than once, my key could've been found, but I chose (unconsciously or not) to ring their bell, hoping he'd respond. Not too long after that he texted me, striking up a conversation, and we started hanging out. Generally, I'd climb down the fire escape from my apartment to the big deck attached to his and we'd chat, sitting on camp chairs in the fog. I found out he was an engineer in Turkey and did gig work in SF, and had been in the US for ~2 years. He found out I was the one playing viola upstairs and that I also worked in tech. We both came from big families - he's youngest of five with awesome older sisters, and I'm second of 7 kids. There were weekend trips to Mendocino, Marin, Tahoe. When we needed a deep chat, we'd climb the rickety fire escape ladder up to our roof or take a few beers down to Ocean Beach. We met (and really loved) one another's families - either meeting over FaceTime, or hanging out in the Bay Area. He proposed by placing the ring in my favorite book, Emma by Jane Austen and giving it to me as a gift. The themes that come up again in our conversations is that we couldn't have imagined the other existed. That we'd hoped deeply for unlikely combinations but had basically given up on ever finding it. For Şamil, it was a combination of purity of heart and strength and independence. Someone in whom he could trust his deep love and dependability. For Christy, it was a combination of sweetness and solidness that could stand straight in harder moments, and whose life was ordered and brave. A combination of independent, somewhat radical thinking with deep discipline. In one other, we found these things. We're so excited to share our love story and the feeling of deep gratefulness we have in having found one another with all of you! We hope you'll hold us in a tapestry of love and support as we start a life together.