Jay and I have a pretty unique story. We have known one another since we were in 5th grade. In fact, we grew up on the same street! In high school we were friends, but nothing more! Jay had the hots for me, but I thought he was too polite! We went to Junior Prom together because I asked him (AS FRIENDS)! We had a nice time and continued a friendship through our senior year of high school and our freshmen year of college. He was at St. Cloud State University and I was at Concordia College in Moorhead.
About a month after our freshmen year ended (1996), Jay got really sick and almost died. (See "Jay--Heart Transplant" page!) Prior to his illness we had started hanging out a lot. He was home on the weekends for baseball and I was done a month before most of our friends. So, we started seeing a lot of each other. Then he got sick. REALLY sick. I got scared and realized I really liked him. I realized that if he lived, I was going to let him know that we were going to be together forever. He lived. And essentially we were together everyday after his transplant. We never really talked about it. We just had an unspoken agreement that we were going to be together. So, our relationship started under intense circumstances. He had to live in Rochester for three months post transplant and I was back up in Moorhead. I spent every waking moment worrying about him and planning rides to Rochester so we could be together!
He recovered and went back to school spring quarter at SCSU. The weekend drives were just shortened dramatically from 6 hours to 2.5 hours! We continued to see a lot of each other and my grades tanked! I decided Concordia wasn't the place for me and obviously I should become a nurse (obviously--I was an English major)!!! So, the next fall I transferred to Mankato State. The same occurred. We saw each other every weekend and my grades suffered. Finally, the next year I transferred to SCSU. I went back to my English major and we finished out college. Once we graduated, Jay proposed and we got married in May 2001. As they say, "the rest is history!"
This story sounds uber dramatic, but I swear, this is how it happened!
