Valentine's Day Weddings to be Held at the Historic Pasco County Courthouse
PDF VersionThey met at an end-of-the-year picnic for members of the Sickles High School ROTC. He was a senior. She was a junior, the sister of one of his classmates. He loved her brown eyes, her dark lashes like luxurious, languid fans. She liked his spirit, his quick wit and his smile that tilts to one side.
But if they struck a spark that day, the fire was kindled and grew at a distance. They dated for a while before her parents — Europeans and old-school — ordered her to break it off. "They thought it was moving too fast," she says.
Crestfallen, he moved to Ohio, to family, and near his first crush — Ohio State University — but the forbidden lovers corresponded surreptitiously on Facebook. Last year, set on his prize, he returned, got a place near her in Citrus Park, took jobs with a local moving company and as a vendor at Busch Gardens, and gave her a key. She moved in. Four months later, she was pregnant.
On a windswept Tuesday afternoon under a gentle, steady sun, he met her again, on the north courtyard of the historic Pasco County Courthouse. She wore a veil over an ivory princess gown over a seven-month baby bump, finished with white opera gloves and balancing on white satin heels. Her mahogany hair was caught up in a twist pinned in place by a cascade of rhinestone-encrusted silk orchids.
He wore a scarlet silk shirt, black tuxedo pants and a rakish silver tie. "Love the Buckeyes," he winked in a rare moment of calm. "I've been pacing all day," he said. "Sure I'm nervous. I mean, I'm overjoyed; I've been wanting this for a long time. But my heart, it's just thumping."
The elaborating Wednesday column by TOM JACKSON of The Tampa Tribune is here: TBO
