Our Story

We met late in the summer of 2017. 

OK Cupid, the online dating platform, brought us together.  

Mark dutifully answered every one of the 120+ questions on the platform. 

I answered only one. What are you good at? Parallel Parking. 

Our first date was to be drinks for happy hour at the Root Down.  Drinks turned to dinner and dinner to a walk to the iconic Little Man Ice Cream a few blocks away. Neither wanting the date to end, we wandered across the street to watch a pickup game of basketball while eating our ice cream. Our first kiss was shared over ice cream cones. When we opened our eyes, a young girl of maybe 12 was licking her cone and taking in the scene.  Without dropping eye contact, she stated flatly that she liked my shoes. Nude patent leather heels. Those heels walked me over 3 bridges and countless more kisses that night as Mark walked me home. 

We were smitten.

Both newly out of long marriages, we were deliberate and cautious with every step in the months that followed. Both considering the impact our emerging relationship would have on our boys. We moved at their pace, not ours.  There was no denying the deep connection and love that was growing between us. In those first several years, we worked to ensure space for each of our boys to digest not only their parents' separations, but this new relationship as well.

We were deeply in love and after several years, we both knew this would be a lifelong love affair. Marriage or not, we were committed to growing together through the next chapter of our lives. Both of us, deeply enamored with the heart of the other.

As the world went into lock down, we both faced major career changes and family challenges in 2020. A proving ground that only made us stronger.  Over the next 2 years, we spent more time apart than together, lost my father, bought a home we adore, faced challenges with both of our boys, and launched a basic income pilot program. What emerged was a deeper respect and new levels of vulnerability, intimacy, and trust than either of us could have dreamt of.

Mark is a master of surprises. He proposed on Christmas morning, 2022, with the ring his mother wore for nearly 45 years. It is an honor to wear it every day. Join us on June 29, 2024 as we legally and publicly declare our love, surrounded by all of your love, and honoring the love that binds us.