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My mother and father both went to the University of Maine in Orono to continue their education. My father went for Forestry and my mother for teaching, the only thing crossing their paths was the Alpha Gamma Rho Fraternity. During the time they went to the University, Alpha Gama Rho had a little sister program and that’s how my mother got involved in the Fraternity. My father was a pledge there and soon became a brother during his sophomore year.
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As a little sister a.k.a “Rho mate” my mother liked to hang out with the brothers of the fraternity and often tended the bar in the fraternity’s basement. This is where my father first encounters her, he said he was too much of an introvert to be able to speak with my mother who was the exact opposite. In an admission from him, he’d stated he would watch my mom tend bar and just look at her, and her long dark curly hair.
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My parents didn’t end up having a face to face encounter until a Halloween party at the frat house. My father offered to walk my mother home, thinking that he might be able to have a little fun, the other brothers of the house told him he wouldn’t get anywhere. My father believing himself to be up to the task disregarded their warnings. Taking a forest path from the house back to my mother’s dorm, they soon came to the front entrance, where my mother gave him her thanks. However, like the brothers had warned my father, my mother was a “good Catholic girl.”
“I hope you realize you’re not getting anything tonight,” stated my mother, before heading to her room. My father soon returned to the frat house, the brothers howling in laughter at his failed attempt.
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After this, both my parents started dating other people, and soon they were both engaged — my mother to a man named Leon and my father to a woman named Tracy. When my mother gave the news to the frat brothers and little sisters, my father told me he remembered feeling angry and sick, like there was a lead weight in his stomach. At the time, he wasn’t sure why he felt this way, he’d only had interactions with my mother a few times and only pursued her once, especially while he was with another woman.
Once they both graduated, they got married to who they assumed was the love of their lives, each trying a make a life for themselves and their partners. Yet fate had other plans, as both of my parents were betrayed by the people they loved the most, and both were soon divorced. My mother was living the single life in her condo in Massachusetts, working as a Trade Show logistics manager. At the same time, my father was working for Keiver Willard Lumber Company as a salesman. It would’ve been unlikely for their paths to cross, yet, at a lumber and manufacturing show, they saw each other again 15 years since their time at the frat house. As any friends would, they reminisced about their time in college and caught up with each other’s lives. My father learned that my mother was now single, and my other learned that he was getting a divorce and had a young daughter. They exchanged contact information and went their separate ways, my father to Maine, my mother to Massachusetts.
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It wasn’t long before my father had to go to Kevier Willard’s Corporate office, which would bring him close to where my mother lived. He politely asked to take her out to dinner and a few drinks after his meeting at his job. She accepted, and they got to know each better before my father drove her back to her condo, to which she replied at the door,
“I hope you realize you aren’t getting anything tonight,”
In response, my father burst out laughing, and stated,
“You said that 15 years ago when I walked you back to your dorm!”
This event led to them dating, and less than a year later, both my parents realized their relationship was going to continue into marriage. They were so confident in this that they started building a house on land that’s been in my dad’s family for 200 years. My mother would commute from Massachusetts to Maine every weekend to help my father build the home they’d soon have a family in. Unwilling to continue the tiresome commute, my mother announced that she wanted to get married to my father. He was more than happy to make that happen, and all he asked was when.
“December 6th,” stated my mother, who was excited to spend the rest of her life with my father. They got married in a church with a small service on December 6th, 1997.
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