At 38, 21 years is over half my life. And yet, that is how long I have known my husband, Chris. We met on April 19, 1991, after overcoming a series of circumstances that should have kept us apart. Enjoy the story...
In 1991, I was a 17 year old high school junior in Pekin. Chris was an 18 year old senior in Peoria, at our rival school. I went to Pekin Community High School; he went to Richwoods High School. I was a shy, insecure competitive figure skater; he was a quiet runner. We met on the campus of Western Illinois University.
Every year, Western has a poetry festival/competition/workshop for high school students. I had been the year before, so our creative writing advisor (Mr. Petry) was originally going to fill my spot with someone who had never been. However, I was 1) his favorite student, & 2) the editor of our school's literary magazine. I told him that if he wanted the magazine done on time -- or at all - he would take me. I was joking, but I got to go.
Chris, on the other hand didn't have to talk his way into going, but he was almost kept from attending, anyway. If he had run track that year, he would have missed Western because there was a meet that day. As it was, he still almost didn't make it because he had a funeral to attend when he returned home, & they weren't sure he'd make it in time. But he was there.
The day of the workshop was a chilly, rainy Spring day. The way you get assigned to your workshop groups is completely random. When you walk in, they hand you a folder of information. Inside that folder is an index card with your workshop number written on it. I took the first folder I was give & handed it to my friend, Shellie. I kept the next one. As it turned out, my workshop group was in a building across campus. A walk that would occur in the drizzle. I tried to trade my group away for one that was held in the building we were already in. Nobody took me up on it.
Chris tried to trade groups, too. With about as much success as I was having.
On the walk across campus, I was next to this pretty cute guy wearing a Richwoods jacket, but he was very quiet. Mustering up all my courage, I said, "I have a friend dating a guy from Richwoods. I think they know each other through Speech." Thank you, Shannon Tebben-Sandoval for being so outgoing. Shannon's name was the key to continued conversation --- she was dating his best friend, Chris Dermody. We talked all the way across campus, & ended up seated next to each other in the workshop.
As we were breaking up for lunch, the professor running our workshop asked my to stay because he wanted to discuss some works that Mr. Petry had submitted to him ahead of time. When I left the classroom, Chris was in the hall, waiting for me. We walked back across campus together to join our friends for lunch. Unfortunately, we had already chosen different places to eat.
After lunch, we ended up in the bookstore at the same time. Shellie was great -- she'd stand right next to him (after I had pointed him out; what did you think we talked about during lunch?) & say something to me fairly loudly, making sure to use my name. He never noticed. Turns out, he was too busy looking for me to see that I was right there.
We did manage to meet up again after the contest awards were given out. We exchanged names, numbers & addresses on the front of our folders (I still have a t least one of them). I mentioned that I was at Owens in Peoria nearly every day. Then we got on our separate buses & headed home. I assumed that, like usually happened, that would be the end of it.
4 days later, on Tuesday, April 23, Chris called me for the first time. He asked me to a movie for Friday, April 26, but I had to work. But, I was staying with a friend in Peoria because I had to be back at the rink really early the next day. So he asked if I wanted to do something after work. Duh!
I spent about 5 hours that Friday working in the concession stand at Owens. When Chris picked me up, he asked me if I wanted to go get something to eat. Really? After being around nothing but food for the last 5 hours? But, I said yes. So we went to Steak-N-Shake. (here's where extreme nerdiness comes in) He had a cookies-n-cream shake; I had iced tea. Then he took me to Jennifer Kauffman Thompson's house. I took my stuff inside, & went back out to talk a little. Unknown to us, Jen's little brother was watching us from his window. He informed everyone inside when Chris kissed me.
3 weeks later, he told me he loved me for the first time. 2 weeks after that, he told me he wanted to marry me. We got married on July 20, 1996. We have 1 fabulous son, Brogan, and are living out our happily ever after.
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