Whenever I tell this story, people think I am making it up. I look forward to meeting new people with my husband in hopes that they will ask how we met. The story takes place about seven years ago when I fulfilled a career opportunity that I always wanted to do from the time I was a little girl. I completed the police academy in October of 1998 and became an officer on Beach Patrol in a large city in South Carolina. Beach Patrol was a series of stories in itself, but my life became a series of unpredictable events that were both enlightening and tragic.
The morning I returned home after graduating the Police Academy, I found out that my father was having an affair. Although this was one of many, my mother finally decided to kick him out after 27 years and follow through with a divorce. The divorce was final in August of 1999. In September of 1999 my mother came down with a chest cold that just wouldn't go away. After several tests, it was determined that she had cancer in several organs and areas of her body and the outlook was not good. My mother passed away in April of 2003 after she finally broke free from a man that caused her so much pain.
The point of revealing all of these other events that took place prior to meeting my spouse is to let you know what I went through alone. These two life changing events were the hardest things that I had ever been through and I would have given anything to have someone to support me and help me through this difficult time.
On a very hot and humid morning in July of 2000, I responded to a break in of a local ice cream shop along the beach. When I arrived, I could see that the burglars entered the building through one of the panel windows in the front of the store. I checked the front door and it still remained locked, so I entered the store through the broken window. Once I called in to dispatch to verify the break-in, they attempted to contact the "key holder" that they had on file.
Shortly, dispatch called and stated that they could not get in touch with a key holder and requested that I look for someone else to contact. Fortunately by the phone, there was a posted contact. I started to call each person starting from the top and I wasn't having much luck. I finally reached a gentleman that was in the sixth spot on the list. He stated that he was the owner and he would be on his way immediately.
While waiting for him to arrive, I helped myself to some ice cream and gummy worms from behind the counter. In the meantime, another officer arrived and joined in the fun of eating a healthy breakfast on this wonderful July morning. As we were stuffing our faces, a young man approached the building looking just a bit short of an owner. He was covered in dirt and wore a baseball cap covering up the shadows of his face. He approached the building and opened the front door with a key. I am not sure of whether I was more surprised that he was the owner, or I had a large bowl of ice cream in front of me and an open bag of gummy worms.
We went through the typical report writing process and dusted for fingerprints and wrote down everything that was missing. During the process I realized that the other officer and the owner were friends and they attended high school together. I really didn't think much of our meeting, but the owner apparently had something else in mind. I ended up leaving before the other officer because he and the other owner were standing outside talking. About a half hour later, the other officer called me over the radio and asked if I could meet up with him.
When we met, he revealed to me that the owner was extremely interested in me and he left me his number in hopes that I would call him. I did call him and as they say, "The rest is history." I later found out that he was primarily interested in my legs that were easily visible from the uniform shorts that were required for beach patrol. I couldn't ask for a better soul mate and I definitely think my mother was looking down on me and assisted with bringing him into my life. We were happily married in the ever so popular Vegas wedding in November of 2002 and we have been going strong ever since!