Our Love Story

Growing up, I never was particularly interested in getting married. My only constant aspiration was to become a published author, and so I went to college forever and a day toward that goal. While old friends started their married lives, I was content to stay with my family and focus on writing.

That is, until I met Jeff.

I think it was in 2002. My middle sisters, Laura and Lana, had been to church camp the year before, and my youngest sister, Makala, was desperate to go, too. But she was only 8, and we were all very protective of her, especially after Daddy died. So the condition of her being able to attend camp was that I go along as a chaperone. I had never been camping in my life, and, as I am an introvert, being around 100+ strangers was not exactly my idea of a swell time.

I felt terribly out of place that year. I was a late addition, and so didn't really have a role. So to give me something to do, the camp director (now our officiant) assigned me to inspect cabins with this guy named Jeff and another lady. I remember making a silly remark about a book one of the campers had lying on her bed in one of the cabins. I didn't expect anyone to get the joke, but Jeff laughed. We could talk easily, and he made an effort that week to make me feel welcome among strangers. Still, I didn't look twice at him, because I figured anyone that kind and funny, and not to mention cute, was already taken.

By 2004, I was smitten. That one week of camp every year became the highlight of my life. Jeff wasn't taken, he was unfailingly kind, and we laughed at the same things. But I never let on that I liked him. I was sure he wouldn't want me. Every year, I would look forward to camp, to seeing Jeff, and every year I would resolve to let him know how I felt. And every year, I drove away from camp at the end of the week, sad that I had chickened out once again.

But then, in 2013, I finally got some gumption. I was the webmaster at my church, and I needed some pictures of camp for the website. So I messaged Jeff and invited him to go with me to a gospel meeting at Tyree Chapel so he could transfer the pictures he had taken to my computer. Clearly, I was chasing after him, but in my defense, I did need the pictures. After the meeting, he asked me if I'd like to get a Frosty at Wendy's. From there, we started dating, haltingly at first, and with hands shaking from fear. And now he is my best friend, my confidant, and soon will be my husband. We met at camp, he proposed at camp, and now I can think of no better place to be married than at camp.

Throughout my life I never thought I'd be getting married. I figured I'd stay a bachelor all my life. And somehow Sharon filled a lonely void that I didn't know I had.

I had been volunteering at a church camp for about 10 years when the church Sharon attended started sending their youth and chaperones in 2001. Sharon and I had been going to church camp together for several years. I had seen Sharon from a distance during those weeks. We had exchanged cordial conversation and I never knew she was pining for me all those years.

After much prodding by mutual friends (and somehow by Sharon), I asked her to get Frosties at the Franklin, KY, Wendy's after a Gospel Meeting at Tyree Chapel Church of Christ. I was so nervous and wasn't sure what we would talk about. We seemed to hit it off if only in a cautious sort of way.

We went on several dates and somehow I was coaxed out of my fortress of solitude (read my house) and gained a greater trust with Sharon. She grew to be my closest friend, confidant, fiance and future wife.

Now as we plan our wedding we look forward to many years of good times at home and traveling to far off places. There's one thing that I miss when I travel: that is to share the experience with others. Sharon does that for me. It is a chance to play tour guide and to experience God's creation of everything this world has to offer with someone I love.