A week after the party, Mary, who was earning a nursing degree, attended a fraternity-sponsored dance. And there was Chris. "I made a beeline for him," Mary said. "And my life, as I knew it, was over."
Chris and Mary sat at a table to talk. The talking was interrupted by a kiss - they are still arguing over who kissed whom.
The two dove right into a relationship. The first "I love you" came quickly. And not long after, so did talk of marriage right after graduation.
"It was way too much too fast, and I don't think either one of us could handle it," Mary said. She was always trying to push Chris back a bit, she admits. Eight months in, they broke up.
While Mary wasn't comfortable with the pace of the relationship, she also did not want to be with anyone else. She and Chris continued to e-mail and talk during their two-year breakup.
Mary's friends and family were worried. They told her she needed to let go and move on. Mary told them she was still in love, and she believed Chris was in love with her, too.
He was.
By the end of 2006, when Mary was a nurse at Crozer-Chester Medical Center and Chris a software engineer at FMC Technology, Mary decided things needed to change, one way or the other. She told Chris that she couldn't just be friends with him, and that they either needed to get back together or get on with their lives apart.
Chris called - this time to ask if she would have dinner with him New Year's Day, 2007.
The second time around, both were ready.
How does forever sound?
In fall 2009, as Mary was preparing to start her studies as a certified registered nurse anesthetist at Villanova University, her grandmother Skip died. They had always been close, and as the holiday season rolled around, Mary was missing the family matriarch terribly.
