I give her all my love, that's all I do

My wife Sarah and I will be celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary this May. While this may seem unusual when you take into account American divorce stats, it doesn't seem that way to us. Neither of us have divorces in our immediate family. I think that's one of the big reasons why we have lasted so long. We also believe that we are truly soul mates. This may sound corny these days, but I think it's important in a marriage. I used to think being opposites worked in a relationship's favor, but after meeting Sarah, I don't feel that way anymore. Let me tell you about our meeting (cue harp glissando and fade to the past)...

My dad owned a bakery in the 80s, and inevitably, I worked for him there (more on that later). I was the stereotypical baker, the guy who gets up at midnight and trudges sleepily to work. "Time to make the donuts" and all that. After I learned how to drive, I started working the night shift on weekends by myself. This meant that I could not go out on weekends during most of my high school years. As you may know if you've been to high school, this is absolute hell. This alone was the reason why I hated being a baker.

My friends felt bad for me, and also saw an opportunity in my plight. They began to visit me at work in the wee hours of the morning. They would talk with me and amongst themselves, and also avail themselves of free coffee and cold drinks and cookies and donuts, etc. I enjoyed their visits, because it kind of felt like I was going out with them, and it wasn't so lonely. Usually the late night visits happened after the Rocky Horror Picture Show, which played at our local mall every Friday and Saturday. One night my friend Mike told me he met a girl there and was dating her, so I told him to bring her along some time, and he did.

Mike brought his girlfriend Sarah to the bakery on November 11, 1990. (I wrote it down in my journal at the time, that's why I remember.) She had very long, almost white hair and a beautiful smile, but I didn't think of her as anything but Mike's girlfriend then. She asked me a lot of questions about my work, which no one had really done before. It was a little difficult talking to her with everyone else there because she was extremely quiet. She came to visit a few more times with him. One time she slipped on some cornmeal on the floor, and I felt really bad for her and was very apologetic. Another time, she asked if she could have some chocolate milk, and I teased her about it, because everyone else just took stuff without asking. She told me later that this made her very angry with me.

In December, Sarah came to visit, and her hair was cut very short. I had always like long hair on women until I had seen Ghost, and Sarah's hair looked just like Demi Moore's in the movie. It was then that I really noticed her for the first time and started to like her. I was hoping that she liked me too, because she started to come and visit by herself. We bonded over my They Might Be Giants coffee mug, whom I liked and didn't know anyone who had ever heard of them. Sarah had actually seen them in concert! We liked many of the same things, and I really enjoyed talking to her (when I could hear her). I thought that Sarah was definitely the one for me.

I was in a long-term relationship that was pretty much over, but I didn't know how to get out of it. And Sarah told me later that Mike was a rebound thing, as she had abruptly ended a long-term relationship of her own. My relationship finally ended mutually, and a few days later Sarah broke it off with Mike. But most of my friends liked her, and I thought I should step back from asking her out. I decide that I wouldn't pursue anyone for awhile, even though I liked her a lot.

I went to a party on New Year's Eve with a different group of friends. But I wasn't having a good time, so I decided to go to my other friend's party, hoping that Sarah was there. She was! I wanted badly to ask her out, but I didn't know what to do. She solved that for me by sitting on my lap and asking me, "How come you're the only one that doesn't like me?" I assured her that I did like her, and we left the party and went to my house to listen to Beatles albums.

We started dating a few weeks later (at the comic book show in New York, another thing we have in common), and both of us realized in a short period of time that we were meant to be together. We got engaged on September 1st, 1991. This was Sarah's 20th birthday, and it was also the last day my dad owned the bakery. So we got engaged in the bakery at 4 AM, surrounded by friends. I got down on one knee with the ring, and I had also written to my disc jockey friend Manny Glin, who was on WDHA at the time. He popped the question for me on the radio, which as you know, was answered yes.

Have the last 15 years been perfect? Of course not. But there's no one else I would have wanted to go through the last 15 years with. And it's true that I love her more now than I did back then. I had always heard people say that, but I didn't know how it could be true. Now I know. I love you Sarah, forever and always.