How shall I begin to describe our story of falling in love? I know, with its title: The Crazy, Wild, Cute, and Funny story of the Ex-Nun Who Married a Divorcing, Middle Aged Man, with Three Kids!
\tOur story begins in the quaint little town of Stockton, California. Ok, so quaint has NEVER been used to describe Stockton. Never the less, it is the setting of our tale.
\tDavid, our protagonist, is the middle of an amicable divorce from his first wife in 2009. While dealing with the pains of separation from his kids, he decides to see what friends are up to by checking on their Facebook statuses. He finds a good friend has posted pictures of them back in high school during the 80’s. Oh what style they had back then! David wonders what other embarrassing picture have been posted on his friends page, so he investigates. To his great relief, only more current pictures are to be found. Yet something sticks out while perusing the photos, a young woman who is smiling in every picture she appears. He comments on her smile and asks to be added as a friend. She obliges and they end up becoming friends. Jennifer is her name and no, she is not the heroine of the story.
David finds out that Jen has run a marathon, something he has always wanted to do. He joins Team in Training (TNT) to help raise funds to fight leukemia and train to run in the Nike Women’s Marathon in the great city of San Francisco. David visits Jen in beautiful Portland, Oregon and realizes that they will only be friends. David continues to train for the marathon.
Enter Elaina, no, not the heroine either, another runner from Portland, OR. What’s up with the long distance relationships David? David has visited Elaina twice and had already purchased a ticket to fly back up in a few weeks. In the meantime there was a Get Healthy Day in Stockton and David, his running mates, and TNT hosted a booth. That’s when David finally met Susy, a runner who hadn’t been training because of injuring her knee. They struck up a conversation for only a few minutes and then continued to work the booth. During a lull in people asking about TNT, David said to his co-runners, “Now that I’m single, how do you date? I love to dance, but everyone at the clubs could be my children, they’re soooo young. I’m not a big drinker, so I don’t hang out at bars. What should I do?” You should know, that the other runners, all three of them, are women. After getting great advice about staying involved with things he enjoys, David put it out of his mind. Enter Lucia, YES, the heroine has finally arrived! She is visiting her sister Susy (of injured knee fame) and complaining about how she has a wedding to go to in August and is sick of going alone to these things. She wants a date! Mind you, she is telling her sister this in May, three months before the wedding. Susy proceeds to tell her of this guy she met and how she believes he might be willing to go. Although Lucia protested, Susy sent an e-mail to David telling him of the predicament her sister was in and how she feels they would hit it off as friends. Susy gives David Lucia’s e-mail and tells him to contact her.
David responds to Susy’s message and informs her that although he is single, the divorce is not yet final and that he has three young kids that he has custody of half of the time. He tells Susy that he doesn’t want Lucia to think he is some swinging bachelor. That he has responsibilities he takes seriously. She says Lucia knows that he is a father and not to worry about that, just e-mail her! She then tells David that she and her husband will even go on a double date if that will make the meeting less nerve racking. He agrees and asks if they like Italian food because there is a great restaurant in Sacramento he would like to take them to. Susy thinks that would be nice, JUST E-MAIL HER!
David decides to look her up on Facebook since he has her e-mail address. When he gets to her page, he notices that everything is in Spanish!! Ay dios mio!! Is he going to need to have his two older kids, who are in a duel immersion school learning Spanish, translate for him? He proceeds to write her a lengthy e-mail stating how he would love to meet her before the wedding so that any jitters could be worked out. Lucia adds David. That’s it. No message saying she too would like to meet before the wedding. Nothing! Nada!
David continues to monitor his Facebook hoping for some type of reply from Lucia. Nothing. As the weeks go by his running partners make jokes that Lucia found someone better looking, was scared off by the kids, and a few other reasons she hasn’t responded. The weeks continue to roll by with no word from Lucia.
One of David’s sisters is planning a party for the same night of the wedding but David delines the offer to attend because he gave his word to Lucia to be her date. “Has she responded to you?’ his sister asks, “No, but I gave my word.” David is losing hope on meeting Lucia. By the way, David is still in contact with Elaina up in Portland and things seem to be moving closer to a true relationship status with her, other than just friends.
A week and a half before the wedding David finally gets an e-mail from Lucia! She has been finishing up her Master’s degree and thesis in Social work at Sacramento State, interning at a hospital, working part time at her church, and moving to Livermore. And that is why she is sorry she didn’t respond earlier. “No worries!” David told her, “Would you like to meet for lunch this weekend?” “That would be nice.” she replied. “Does Saturday work for you?” “Sunday would be better.” “Ok, Boudins on Pacific?” “What time?” “How about 1:00?” “Great, see you there.”
Sunday arrived and David was a complete mess! Trying different outfits on (yes ladies, men who were raised with three sisters know how important it is to look your best when meeting a woman for the first time) was driving him crazy. It was lunch and a first meeting (date?) so he didn’t want to be too dressed up, casual yet classy he thought, yes, that will work.
When she pulled up and got out of her car, all David could think of was, “Those are some BIG sunglasses! Oh no, I hope she’s not snooty.” On the contrary, she was the most gracious, kind, and caring woman he had met in a very long time. Lunch went quite well, telling each other on how nervous they both were. When they finished, they walked to a yogurt place nearby and talked for another two hours. She then had to leave to attend church with her family and then head out to see The Hangover.
They continued to text and talk the rest of the week. David told Lucia about Elaina in Portland, but she wasn’t concerned, after all, it’s not like they were dating.
The day of the wedding, Lucia picked David up and they headed out to Livermore. That’s when Lucia told David that she was a nun for 8 ½ years and hadn’t been on a date, except group dates with friends, in 15 years. No, David did NOT look at how fast she was driving and try to figure out if he could jump, tuck, and roll out of the car. He thought about how they are almost in the same boat. He was married for almost 15 years while she was out of the dating scene for the same amount of time. He felt honored that she would share that type of information with him. They had both said how comfortable it was being around and talking to each other.
They had a great time at the wedding and David was able to meet another sister and many friends of Lucia. The service was mostly in Spanish so Lucia had to translate. David asked why he was getting stared at by so many people; Lucia told him that they all knew her as Sister Lucia, so her bringing a date was a new experience for them. David just smiled at them all and had a wonderful time. The ended the night with a warm embrace and a slightly wet (David’s fault) kiss.
The day after the wedding, David brought Lucia’s favorite flowers, orange and yellow tulips to her sister Susy’s house where she was staying. She invited him in and they talked the night away, with a few kisses thrown in for good measure.
They continued to talk and text over the next few weeks and could tell something was building, but what about Elaina up in Portland? David had already purchased his ticket. Lucia knew this. Elaina knew about Lucia, but David wasn’t in a relationship with either woman. David went to Portland and had an ok time. He realized that when he had to keep reminding himself not to call Elaina, Lucia, he knew where his heart belonged.
Over the next few months they traveled to Mexico several times visiting Lucia’s relatives and having the time of their lives.
In July of 2010, on his birthday, David asked Lucia’s father for her hand in marriage at a picnic they were hosting at a local park. Lucia’s father turned to her and asked her if she wanted to marry David, she said yes. Her dad then told David that it was ok with him. David took off the ring he had been wearing on his pinky finger the whole day and proposed to Lucia. She said yes and they are still living happily ever after!! On September 18th, they will celebrate their four year anniversary.