Once upon a time, two babies were born to different families in Little Rock, AR. Eighteen years later, Ann graduated from an all-girls high school. Hoyte graduated from an all-boys school, the brother school to hers. But they did not meet then.
No, it would not be until the summer after their freshman year of college that they even knew the other existed. They met at her father’s law firm in Little Rock both working as interns and became friends that summer.
They both went to different schools. She went to a liberal arts college in Tennessee and he attended a conservative Baptist university in Texas. When they came back to Arkansas for the summers, they would go on dates but still would see other people until their senior year.
They started going steady despite the distance between them. After graduation, this spit-fire democrat and conservative republican both found jobs in D.C. and continued to date.
On a Monday night, Ann went over to Hoyte’s apartment after work and had brought him a rose. She said that she had been thinking about him at work all day and missed him. His response was that he had a lot going on that night and wanted to be alone. She stormed off.
He calls her the next day at work asking to go to dinner. She responds that she doesn’t know if she has time for him and says no. He frantically calls later and begs her to come to dinner. She reluctantly accepts.
She ignores him the first 20 minutes of the 45-minute drive but eventually lets it go and decides to enjoy the rest of the night. He takes her to the Chart House right on the water. After a lovely dinner, the hostess walks up carrying a vase with a dozen roses.
And on the end of one of the roses is a ring! He gets on one knee and proposes and spoiler alert, she says yes!
He didn’t want to spend time with her the night before because he was preparing the details of his proposal after having already asked for her parent’s blessing. Nine months later, they had a Christmas wedding back in Little Rock.
Flash forward seven years…they have a daughter. Then five years after that, they have a son. This December, they will be celebrating their 29th wedding anniversary. Now why is this story so important? Well, you see, this is the story of how my parents met.
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