June 2, 1990
It is hard to believe that 25 years ago TODAY Nancy and I were standing in front of God, family and friends declaring our love for each other. Where have all the years gone?
I still remember our first “date”. We were in college, I was working for a church in Harrisburg, PA. The church was having a dinner, one of those dinners where everyone attending would be old enough to be my grandparents but I was still expected to be there. I had not arranged for anyone to accompany me to the dinner and time was running short. I was in the college cafeteria looking for a date, and turned to one of the girls sitting at my table, “Do you want to join me for this dinner?” “No!” She got up to dump her tray. I turned to someone else and asked if they would care to join me, they laughed and got up and walked away. Eventually I looked over at Nancy, “You wouldn’t want to come would you?” “Sure, what time?” I was floored. [I am fairly confident that at that moment in time Nancy simply felt pity for this poor guy who had been rejected multiple times and she did not want to add yet another rejection to the list] Well, we got to the dinner and these people who could not remember what they had for breakfast suddenly had amazing memories and could remember the name of the young lady I had brought to a church function six months ago. They were all proud of themselves and took to saying, “Hi Joan, it is great to have you here again” every time they bumped into Nancy. On the way back to school I was apologizing non-sto
p and told Nancy, “Let me take you out to for a real dinner for being so nice and going with me tonight.” Well, the rest my friends is 25 years of history. It did not take me long to realize how special a woman Nancy is. We were engaged in less than a year, married just a few weeks after college graduation [her mother insisted we do it quickly, rather than take the entire summer to prepare for the big day :)] and have never looked back. I have been blessed to call her my friend, partner, wife, confidant, and mother of my children for these last 25 years. She could not make me any happier than she does. I hope I make her half as happy as she has made me.
My grandparents celebrated 50 years of marriage very early in our marriage and Nancy has always held that up as milestone to work towards. Over the years she has joked that I only have to stay married to her for 50 years…then I can do whatever I want. At 71 I am not sure I will be interested in re-entering the dating scene so I guess I will keep her around even after “my time is up.”
Nanc, thanks for being you and helping me become the person I am today. Dan
Here are just a few of the pictures from over the years…hope you enjoy them as much as I did putting them together.
