Five Years

Today, March 12th, is our 5th wedding anniversary. The story of how we met and married is an interesting one, and we wanted to share it with our friends who may not have heard it before. We'd both been married for about 30 years, Dan was a widower and Cathy was divorced. Like a lot of single adults nowadays, we turned to the world of online dating to find someone else to share our life with. We are one of the rare success stories. There's a lot of deception and lies out there, so it's hard to know who to trust and what is real when you approach someone online. Cathy liked my profile and called me one night. This was the first time anyone had ever been bold enough to call me, so I was intrigued. Cathy said there was something about my eyes and the way I presented myself that caught her interest. We talked and messaged each other for a few weeks, but never saw each other in a video call. Cathy was looking for a new job and accepted a position at a detention facility in Okeechobee Florida, about 40 miles away from my home in Sebring. I offered to pick her up at the airport and let her stay at my house for a little while until she found her own place to live. 

Cathy's brothers and sisters warned her not to come to Florida. How could she know I wasn't a criminal and had been lying to her? They all felt she was putting herself in great danger by being so trusting of me, and not finding out more about me first. We met each other for the first time on Saturday, March 9, 2019. We were married three days later.  I felt a powerful attraction to her, the feeling was mutual, and I knew that if she stayed in my house very long, I would risk jeopardizing my priesthood and temple covenants because the temptation was so strong. It's hard to describe, but I could feel and sense her kindness and goodness, it wasn't as much a physical attraction as it was a spiritual one. I could tell Cathy had a very beautiful spirit, and that was what I found so attractive about her. I knew immediately she was right for me, that we could have joy, happiness and fun together, and move on from the grief and sorrow we felt from losing a spouse. At our age, I feel like when you know something is right, you don't need to wait around and engage in a long courtship. So, unlike the counsel we give to our children to be careful about important decisions in your life, I asked if Cathy would marry me, and without hesitation she said yes. We were married in the bishop's office, we had two members of the ward as witnesses that only Dan had met before, and all we had to celebrate with after the ceremony was a simple white coconut cake from Publix. We didn't tell our kids and siblings about our marriage until after the fact. Needless to say, they were all shocked at our impulsiveness, and every one of them predicted our marriage was a mistake, and would not last.

Well, here we are five years later, and our marriage has not only endured but become stronger. We love each other, we are being blessed for our decision to consecrate our lives in the service of God as missionaries, and our combined families are reaping the blessings from our marriage in 2019, and being sealed together in the Draper Utah temple in 2021. The lesson we've learned is to have faith in Jesus Christ, exercise that faith by listening to the promptings you get from the Holy Ghost as you live worthy of God's blessings, and put your trust in Him. It was the best thing we could possibly do to marry each other, even if it seemed at the time we were being hasty and foolish by not waiting to be absolutely sure. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith. We're glad we did!