Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Life Changing Valentine's Day

The prompt for week 7 of 52 Ancestors in 52 week is Valentine, was there a special love story in your family. After much thought it finally occurred to me, that yes there is and it's ME!

Back in 1999 I met Raman Venkataraman. We met online in a chat room on a website called ICQ. We met there night after night and talked about a variety of things. Eventually, we exchanged phone numbers. After a few months, we decided to meet. The question was where? After all, at that time, I lived in Tulsa, OK and he lived in Bethlehem, PA. It was finally agreed upon to meet in Chicago over Labor Day weekend. 

It was a whirlwind weekend with museums, boat rides and lovely dinners. We clicked! After that, he came to Tulsa over Thanksgiving weekend. This gave him an opportunity to meet one of my sons as well as my friends. This too proved to be a wonderful weekend. It was then my turn to visit PA. So over the week between Christmas and New Year's Day, I visited PA. Just as he did on his visit to Tulsa, I met his one son and his soon to be fiancĂ©. It was a wonderful time. 

But then came the big discussion about what happens now? How do we continue this relationship when we live 1200 miles apart? Neither one of us could continue with this traveling back and forth. He was a tenured professor it was not reasonable or practical for him to pack up and move. But for me it was a more reasonable expectation as I was a dental assistant and could more easily find a job. 

With this decision, arrangements were made,  and the move was set in motion. On February 12, 2000 I got in my car and started the 1200 mile trek. Two and half days later on February 14, 2000 I arrived in Bethlehem, PA and started my new life!

So tomorrow, Valentine's Day 2018, marks our 18th anniversary of being us. And in July, on the 3rd to be exact, we will celebrate our 16th wedding anniversary. We've traveled the world, supported each other through cancer, surgeries, and the adjustment to retirement. Our life has been mundane as a merry-go-round and as exciting as a roller coaster. But through it all, we've laughed together, yelled at each other and still end up saying "I love you." 


Happy Valentine's Day

1 comment:

  1. What a sweet Valentine's story! Thank you for sharing! May you both have a wonderful Valentine's Day.

    ReplyDelete