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This is a little page devoted to my marriage :)
We met on 19 February 1983 and it was love at first sight!
We were both in college and are kind of what they call a "statistic"...that is I attended the all-girls school and he attended the all-boys school and we met and married. His college went co-ed not too long after we met so there aren't too many "statistics" around these days!
We met on a retreat to the Abbey of the Genesee in Geneseo, NY. I was there with my "then" boyfriend...Al. I met Anthony the very next morning and we've been together ever since!
Our time together has always had its fair share of thrills and adventure. We met in February 1983 and in July, I took Anthony home for the first time and my mother suffered a massive heart attack that very night! She died 6 weeks later. The following summer, Anthony had open-heart surgery to correct a congenital heart defect with a procedure known as the modified Fontan. He came back 60 lbs lighter and looking like death warmed over and ready for a comeback! But....he was alive and the future looked bright!
We became engaged the following Hallowe'en at a very romantic Italian restaurant in Jeannette, Pennsylvania (little did we know THEN how large a part Jeannette would play in our lives!). Anthony got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Of course, I said yes! I couldn't wait to be a part of his family....what struck me most was a plaque his father had in the kitchen that said "The Greatest Thing a Man can do for his Children is Love their Mother." I knew this was a family I wanted to be a part of!
We exchanged rings. I gave him a tiger's eye and he gave me a beautiful two-carat white sapphire ring, set in a crown and surrounded with pink, Tanzanian sapphires...a ring we had designed together.
The following spring we set the date...Friday the 13th of June 1986 - St. Anthony's FeastDay!
We were so excited...the wedding turned out to be a beautoful, fairy-tale! Since it was Friday, we decided on a 6:30 wedding and it was just awesome!
All of our bridesmaid's wore "southern belle" style gowns in lilac and pink...my maid-of-honour, my sister, Alison, wore the same dress in pink with lilac trim. The groomsmen wore grey tuxedoes with cumberbunds and ties in lilac to match the bridesmaids...the best man, my brother-in-law, Michael, wore pink to match Alison.
My gown was beautiful...white with pink, satin ribbon trim to match my engagement ring. I carried a bouquet of white roses with violets in it, in remembrance of my mother.
We had a traditional, Catholic ceremony attended by about 250 people followed by a reception in the church hall downstairs.
After the reception, we took off for a week to Ocean City, Maryland!
We moved into a little one bedroom apartment near his parents and the next year we bought our home in Jeannette, Pennsylvania.
Our travels have taken us all the way to Leesburg, Virginia, which is where Evan was born, seven years after we were married. We returned back to our home in Jeannette when he was 10 months old and have been here ever since.
Our lives have certainly changed in the last 13 1/2 years! Anthony has had to "retire" and is now Mr. Mom! I went back to college and augmented my degree in History with another in Engineering Technology and now I work for the City Engineer in Jeannette.
Things have definitely changed in the time we have been married. We certainly aren't where we thought we'd be in 13 1/2 years....but the joy is, we're still together!
