We Still Do! We're renewing our wedding vows!

We met in Philadelphia in 1989, after Ronnie got out the Air Force and was looking for a fresh start away from the negativities of Virginia. He went to Philly to work with his brother in his booming home improvement business. His brother was dating a girl named, Beverly – who also happened to be Monica’s best friend. Monica and Beverly were in the grocery store when Ronnie and his brother showed up. Ronnie has a card with his name and phone number on it and he gave it to Monica with the hope she would call him. She never called but Ronnie was persistent, and was able to take her on their first date which was amazing, dinner and a movie. Everything seemed to be going good, but we were both waiting for the other person to call about future dates. After a few weeks, Ronnie called Monica because he found out from Beverly that Monica was shy. After the second date, in spite of our age difference, we found out that we had a lot in common. Our friendship begins to grow and we became increasingly inseparable. We wanted to make our relationship work, but we wanted to start somewhere new, so Ronnie moved to Pittsburgh. Monica moved to Pittsburgh a few months later, we haven’t been separated since. Monica was pregnant with Sharonna when she came to Pittsburgh and everything was falling in place like a beautiful Philly love story. We lived in a rough part of Pittsburgh called Homewood where Sharonna was born. We moved to a low-income neighborhood to save our money so we could purchase a house so our children could have a nice place to grow up. Instead of using our money for a big wedding, we used it to purchase our first house – we reluctantly went to the courthouse to get married. Unfortunately we never got to have a real wedding and this event is going to be a dream come true for both of us. We people say “Time flies went you are having fun” believe them because have thirty-five years and counting. We love shopping and hanging together, we are truly best friends. Went we met, we both had “GEDS” now we have multiple college degrees. We are the first in our families to graduate college. After becoming ‘Empty Nesters’ we purchased a house in Virginia so we could be closer to the beach – A place we were traveling to every year to reboot our lives and our children’s lives. We have grandchildren now, along with two crazy daughters together. One looks just like Monica, and one looks just like Ronnie. The one that looks just like Monica acts just like her dad and the one that looks like Ronnie acts just like Monica. Monica is a proud member of Sigma Gamma Rho Incorporated, she loves her sorority, her sorors, and being active in the community. Ronnie shoots in a weekly pool league and he is a high ranking player. He is also the proud author of five novels, and is planning to put another book out this year based on what he had to do to change his life story… Everyone has their own love story, but ours is truly our favorite.