Back Story: When Norman and I moved to Keuka Park from Kentucky about 14 years ago, my second job at Keuka College was in the Office of Experiental Education. One of my bosses was a single, hard working mom named Sally Berch. Sally was a Keuka alum, having gotten her degree while working full time for the college. Sally had a son, Christopher. Christoher was a tall gangly boy just finishing middle school and starting high school. Chris's father was not a factor in his life and Sally was raising her son essentially by herself. She has a great mom and dad and two brothers, but the day to day, 24/7 responsibility for Chris was her's alone.
I had met Christopher briefly, a few times when he came into the office to visit his mom. Usually he had a basketball in one hand and something to eat in the other. Rarely did he say more than "Is my mom here?"One day, Sally had a meeting that was going to go late into the day, early evening and was having difficulty arranging transportation home from basketball practice for Chris. I volunteered to go pick him up. Chris and I had said maybe two words to each other before this. I drove downtown at the appointed hour, Chris came out of the gym, got into the car and we headed home. Now, I'm not known for my sterling conversational skills to begin with but I thought I'd give it a shot. I asked Chris how practiced went and he said, "OK". I think that was the extent of our entire conversation!
Over the years we went to Chris's basketball games, helped with transportation, Norm gave him advice about colleges, I helped when he got his ear pierced (another story, another time). We helped when he moved to college at Nazareth and again provided transportation back and forth from Rochester to Keuka and generally provided what support we could to Chris and Sally as Chris grew more independent and started on his academic career.
Sally became my best friend at Keuka. She supported us in more ways than I can count when we adopted Alexa. She house sat for us and Kasey when we went to China, babysat Alexa for several days when we had business that took us out of town and I tried to the same for her where I could. We became partners at work when it was just the two of us in the office running the entire show. We traveled together for employment conferences, collegiate meetings and whatever else needed to be done. We basically had each other's back. To this day I think of her like a sister. Several years ago Sally married a wonderful man, Jeff Daggett who is her complement in every way. Seeing her happy with Jeff after all the years she was alone is wonderful. They are a wonderful couple and good, good friends.
Chris continued his education at Binghamton University and got a TA-ship in the Economics department. While teaching one of his first courses he spied a lovely young woman and began to plot ways to meet her outside of the classroom. Now, you know, it would be a major no-no for Chris to date one of his students, so for the record, they didn't REALLY begin to see each other until after exams were over. That's mine and their story and since I don't really know any better, I'm sticking to it! To top it all off, Sandy is from Long Island! Karma if you ask me!
Chris plotted and planned and after over three years together, Chris getting his doctorate and a job at Virginia Tech, and Sandy graduating with her degree; Chris asked Sandy to marry him, in Paris, not Texas, FRANCE! as the Eiffel Tower lit up in the backround - true story!
So nothing could make Norman and I prouder and happier to see how both Chris with Sandy and Sally with Jeff have found their mates for life. We were honored to be able to share in their combined happiness.
Here are some more photos from the wedding
Sandy with her dad, Bob Ahearn and below, Sally and Chris
At the end of their first dance togther. I love this one!
1 comment:
OH, this is such a great story. I love happy endings! I laughed about the ear piercing part. Boy, was Brian's dad MAD when he pierced his ear as a teen.
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