It all began oh so long ago….in the year 2000 at Heald College. Jackie was a fresh-started admissions assistant while Steve was just starting to adjust his nerd tie in IT. One faithful day Jackie had submitted a help ticket and in came our shining IT knight to solve the issue. Steve had never met a printer that could survive his wrath! She knew it was love at first sit…….no wait that’s not how it happened at all!

Steve and Jackie DID in fact meet back in 2000, but it was as fellow co-workers. They maintained a healthy and fun work friendship. Jackie would have issues, Steve would fix them. Jackie’s boss would have issues, Steve would fix them. Steve would throw random extremely witty and funny humor out, Jackie would give him strange looks. As you can see, it was all in the making!

The true story is that we were purely work friends, both with established relationships and partners outside of Heald. We actually lost a bit of contact over the years when Steve moved on from Heald in 2011 but a healthy friendship had developed over those many previous years. We both started families, had a couple of children each and were living our lives.

Fast forward to 2017, a fine day in March Steve was perusing the good ole Facebook and he sees a posting about Scouts, specifically an event that DJ is participating where old US flags are retired by being burned. For those of you that don’t know, Steve and BOTH of his brothers all completed their Eagle rank in Scouts. Steve had never seen this event, so he asked about it…maybe this was the first spark?

Ok with that response…maybe not! This WAS however the start of their conversations again. Steve making random comments on Jackie’s posts, Jackie wondering what this guy is doing, you know, the normal stuff.

The casual comments and conversations went on for a few months until one fine evening where Steve was planning on going out on a date with another girl, and got stood up! He just happened to be talking to Jackie when this happened so the first thing she said was “Why don’t you come out here and hang out with me?”. Keep in mind, this was a purely platonic thing, she was just trying to give Steve an option from the day to day of taking care of the kids and being at the house. He already had a sitter planned, so he figured why not!

He headed out to Castro Valley to the bowling alley where Virginia (Jackie’s Mom) normally bowls on Friday nights. It just happened to be their end of the season dinner, so right when Steve got there he was lucky enough to be told he had to wait for her. It’s a good thing Nation’s Burgers was right down the street or who knows what could have happened. Once both dinners were finished, Jackie and Steve enjoyed a fun night of mini-golf and catching up. Friendly relaxing time, perfect for what occasion.

Meanwhile Steve’s date was rescheduled for Saturday, so plans were once again made. Around 5 that evening what happens, you guessed it, Steve was stood up again! He messaged Jackie just to have a laugh, and of course she invited him out again. This time she was chillin at a bar in San Jose with her friend Hilda, reasonably close to where he lives. It took a little bit for him to get backup babysitter plans and once he did, he was off! Only Jackie had ninja’ed out of San Jose already and was back up in Hayward. Not a problem! Steve was determined to get out as there weren’t many opportunities for it lately.

One slight issue, Steve showed up to the bar where Jackie said she was, only she had left again! Tuning into an interesting game of cat and mouse here isn’t it? Well luckily this time she was only down the street at another bar, Buffalo Bills. A couple of drinks, some good conversations and a few caught smiles rounded out the evening. Was THIS now the spark?? Maybe not after a short drop off to Jackie’s car and quick good-bye hug.

Turns out, these two crazy kids were just a bit too oblivious to their own feelings. Hilda was telling Jackie “I think he likes you, I saw it in him” and Steve was sitting there thinking “oh she was just being nice, she doesn’t like me like that”. Well, as you’re reading this now, guess who was right?

Steve and Jackie have spent the last 7+ years enjoying all those special moments together, making memories together with their children. Lots of fun, cabin trips, food and laughs, and plenty of pictures of Jackie falling asleep the second a movie is turned on. They had a similar upbringing, liked a lot of the same things, and overall couldn’t get enough of each other. As crazy as it is in this world, they are a perfect balance. So rather than bore you with all the lovey dovey stuff, let’s move along to the ring ceremony of our presentation.

So in mid 2022, after Jackie heroically fought through a cancer scare, Steve decided he didn’t want to waste anymore time living so far apart. He had serious heart to heart conversations with his daughters who were both well aware of his love for Jackie and how happy she made him. After getting their vote of confidence, he decided to sell his home in San Jose and move to San Lorenzo permanently, purchasing a home for them to eventually live together in.

A few months after the move it’s time for the holidays. For those of you who know Steve, you know he loves cooking, especially Thanksgiving dinner. So all day he’s cooking and preparing, then Jackie comes up and says “honey! I lost my promise ring” meaning the ring he had given her a few years earlier when he knew she was the right one for him. Now this could have made that day rather sad don’t you think? Nope! Unbeknownst to Jackie, Steve had actually purchased an engagement ring before moving to San Lorezno. He asked his daughter if he should just “upgrade” her right and of course Emalie almost slapped him for even thinking NOT to. So they planned it out, Steve would go upstairs and get the ring ready while Emalie would go find Jackie and tell her Steve needed her upstairs. Here she comes up the stairs, into the room and Steve is all ready to get down on his knee and ask for her hand when <SNATCH> his knee didn’t even get a chance to make it to the floor before Jackie had the ring in her hand and was putting it on. Pretty sure at some point she said “yes”, but it didn't seem necessary anymore.