[Posted on our My Family web site]
Subject: Taylor Willingham is getting married
Yeah, that’s quite a shocker, I know. But after being single for almost three decades, I’ve found someone I want to be with for the rest of my life. I found Terry Crain online, but that’s not where we met. That’s just how we found each other thirty-three years after we graduated from high school in Florida and went separate ways – me to California and he to northern Michigan. (Who do you think made the wiser move?) But I reconnected with him during my research on democracy and social networking when I joined a network for high school classmates and discovered that he had been looking for me for two years. I called him last July and over the past six months we have met in Chicago (saw the opera “La Traviata”), Texas, Michigan, New York (where he proposed to me at Lincoln Center under the Christmas Tree after the opera “War and Peace”), and again in Texas where I finally accepted his proposal.)
I was editor of the high school yearbook and he was the photographer so we spent many hours in the dark room. (These poor kids growing up in the digital age are really missing out!) He had a crush on me, but I was dating someone from another school. Still, I must have felt some fondness for him even then because it really isn’t necessary for the editor to follow the photographer around the sidelines at every football game and then spend hours with him “developing” things in the dark room. Obviously I enjoyed his company and look forward to making up for losing the last 33 years.
At age 50, we are like teenagers – silly, romantic, technologically connected, (speaking of which, my 11 year old niece is sending me ichats as I write this!), and starry-eyed. But we also have the wisdom, patience, and resources of 50 year olds! My 50th year has been fabulous – I love being 50 and don’t know why it’s supposed to be so traumatic. It just makes sense that this is the right time for me to find someone right for me and for me to BE right for someone.
So, if you’re waiting for a wedding date, I hate to disappoint you, but since we are waiting to sell his house and don’t want to waste any time, we probably won’t have a wedding…just a small affair with the folks, Brent and Terri and Ben and Becca. At our age, we don’t need all of the pomp, I’m too busy to be in the event planning business, and we absolutely DO NOT want any gifts – we’re holding garage sales in two states to get rid of excess stuff. We have lots we want to do the house and we want to travel some so he can meet my relatives and California friends. Then we’ll throw lots of parties to celebrate.
