The Way We Met

Here's a word to the young: record everything about every relationship in your journal. The insignificant maybe an important memory one day!

Steve and I met at a Stake Single Adult planning meeting in Waynesboro, Virginia in 1983. I say we met on Sunday, 13 February, a day before Valentines Day; but Steve insists it was after, because the rest of his recollections of our first meeting would make him look silly.

We both were living in Charlottesville at the time and were serving as recently called Stake Young Single Adult Representatives; but had not yet met. The Stake was to host a Tri-State Single Adult Conference in Charlottesville on the last weekend in March, six weeks away; and the first planning meeting was to be held in the Waynesboro Stake Center. I had spent the weekend in Waynesboro, my hometown, to celebrate my father’s birthday with him. Barbara, the Senior SA Rep (wasn’t that an awful title? It was the 30 or 35+ age group. I’m glad the Church got rid of the distinction title!), offered to pick me up from my Dad’s for the meeting. I had come to Waynesboro unprepared for a sudden snowstorm that left several feet of snow; so, when Barbara drove up to my Dad’s apartment, I was standing on the cleared walk at the top of the stairs in a thin navy sweater dress and open toe sling-back navy pumps, no coat. I mention these details because Steve says his first recollection of me was that I was “really pretty; but why is she wearing that in three feet of snow?” When I reached the car, I hopped in the front seat, greeted Lucy (the SA Rep; not “Young”, not “Senior”, just straight-forward “SA Rep”…25 to 35 years???). Barbara quickly introduced Steve before she drove off, as we were late. (Not my fault this time! I was standing outside for 15+ minutes waiting on them. Fortunately, it was sunny and warm…enough, for a mountain girl use to the snowy cold.) Steve, who was sitting behind Barbara in the back seat, leaned forward and quickly chirped a “Hello.” We drove to the Stake Meetinghouse and commenced the planning meeting, with Steve on one side of the rather full room, and Lucy and I sitting together on the other side. It wasn’t long before Lucy, swooning over Steve, started passing me notes in which she explained that she had been sending him anonymous Valentines leading up to an expertly planned reveal dinner at her apartment the next day! She was soooo excited, explaining that Steve was a PhD student in chemistry and all of this and that about this guy whom I could have cared less about; because I had blinders on: I was waiting to put my papers in for my mission… (To be continued.)

ps. Years later, I asked Steve what he remembered about our first meeting, he recalled wondering whether I was his anonymous Valentine. Men. ?!