Paul and I met each other February 18th,1981. Our meeting was an
unusual one, nothing that could be termed an ordinary meeting. We met at
the Shakespearean Festival at BYU.
I had gone to the Festival, not expecting to meet my future husband
there and Paul, having just broken up with the girl he had intended
to marry, wasn't expecting to meet his future wife.
In fact getting serious about someone was the last thing on our minds.
I had every intention on not getting married until I was 25.
I got up the morning of the 18th in a pretty good mood.
I was happy to see that it was raining instead of snowing,
rain being my favorite type of weather. I had made plans to
go to the Shakespeare Festival several days before and I didn't
want it to be too cold.
I quickly got dressed and got on the bus to go to BYU.
When I got there. I saw a few of my friends who were members of the
SCA (Society of Creative Anchronisms) of which I was an off and on member.
However before I went to greet them, I checked out the place to see what was around.
In the enclosed courtyard where they had booths setup,
I happened to see Paul sitting by a girl.
Now at that precise moment I felt an odd feeling, one that I couldn't believe
coming from me... The first thought which popped in to my head was
"Drat!!! He has a girlfriend!"
I felt disappointed, then I felt jealousy and I didn't even know him.
I had to go for a walk, just to clear my head. As I walked I silently
scolded myself.When I felt that I was sufficiently in control I went
back and entered the courtyard to see my friends.
They were very glad to see me. One of them, by the name of Gregor
had bought me as a slave wench at an SCA event. He bought me
for 500 alms, the event was a beggars revel and the contest was
to see who had the most alms at the end of the event.
He decided to sell me at the Shakespearean Festival and a bid was
started. One of the bidders was Paul, the other was named Larry.
Paul won the bid and I became his slave wench for the price of 600 alms.
Modern day equivalent, six cents. And that is how Paul and I met.
During the Festival we conversed; during this time I found out that
the girl he was with was just a friend. He had just ended an
engagement to another girl and had come to the Faire to
keep his mind off of what happened.
When it drew near time to go home I told Paul that I had to catch the bus,and he accompanied me to the bus stop. I was reluctant to get on the bus and had mentioned it to him. We decided to walk and get his 10-speed then go home. And all the while we talked about this and that.getting to know one another. While we walked to where he had his bike locked up (it was in the furthest part of the campus.)
He says to me, "your hand looks cold, let me warm it up for you"
I laughed and said "You don't have to use a line to hold my hand, if you want to do so, you can"
The funny thing is that it wasn't a line, he was just being nice.
We talked alot,about many things. During part of this
conversation, the subject of what we liked to do came up.
He found out that I liked working on cars, he liked to cook.
"Since I like to cook and you like to work on cars, lets get
married" was his comment.
Of course at that time, I had no intention of getting married
until I turned 25. I thought that there were other things that
I could be doing. I wanted to make certain that I found the right one
for me. Little did I know but Heavenly Father had other plans.
After we got to where his bicycle was locked, Paul unlocked it
and we headed for Orem, walking hand in hand, up one of the main
streets which connected Provo with Orem. We were so caught up
with getting to know one another, that we did not realize that our
picture was being taken. All we wondered was, why all of
the cars were honking their horns. A couple of days later, I found out
why they were honking their horns. I am a romantic at heart and
the first signs of spring is a couple walking hand in hand somewhere.
Well I found the picture all right. It is the one you see at the top
of the page.
In the second page of the D section of the paper dealing with the weather, I found a cute picture of a couple walking hand in hand. The caption below the picture reads:
"Between the raindrops, a young couple walk hand in hand even though
he had to forego his bicycle ride."
When I first saw the picture, I didn't recognize whom the people were
but something about this picture really bothered me, I examined the
picture closely.Then it hit me like a ton of bricks, this picture was
of Paul and myself from behind!!
The clue that gave it away is the shoes.. I had bought them for
my birthday the year before whch was only a three months before Paul
and I met. I could hardly believe my eyes.
I decided to go and show Paul the picture, he thought
I was trying to play a joke on him. I told him before I went
to his work, that we had our picture in the newspaper.
When he saw that I wasn't joking, I could have knocked him over with
a feather.
Paul's mother bought several copies of the paper and she
had sent copies of them to her dad. Paul's grandmother was upset..
"why didn't you tell me about the wedding?" she asked.
Paul's mother explained that we weren't married yet. Paul and I thought
that was funny but later on when we became more serious about each
other, we should have realized that we were the ones
for each other. I think Paul all ready knew that. Me, I guess I had to come
to terms with that.
I still had the attitude of not wanting to get married until
I turned 25. But I digress....
I have to confess I was a challenge for Paul to court. However he
persevered and was successful. When Paul had jokingly asked me to
marry him my first impulse was to say yes, but I figured that he was
just.joking around, so I said no. Anyway, from a very interesting
first meeting, a romance and a marriage came about.
And thus was the beginning of our relationship and the first step
to becoming man and wife.
