It was the beginning of 2021, and with fresh hope for the New Year, Katrina took to the dating app, Hinge. She swiped through a couple of profiles, until she landed on a picture of a young man with the kindest face and the most beautiful blue eyes; she was utterly beguiled but still a bit shy. She closed the app and went about the rest of her day, but there was just something about this man. Something inside, maybe intuition, told her to "do something, say something, don't miss this one!". So she took a shot and liked his photo, never dreaming of all that would come. Max responded fairly quickly and thoughtfully about a story she mentioned on her profile, which delighted her.

Sharing so many interests and values, conversation came easily for them. They would text all day and early evening, which felt romantic, akin to wartime couples writing letters back and forth. This eventually led to phone and video calls, but each still wondered when they would be able to meet in person. The COVID-19 pandemic was still raging in its early stages, with no vaccines or at-home tests on the horizon yet. It was a terrifying time with death and hospitalization tolls soaring. Both worked from home at the time; Max living in the home he had recently purchased and Katrina living with her mom and sister. They lived in the same town but it felt like it was oceans apart. Anxious to meet this sweet man, but not wanting to jeopardize her family's health, Katrina worked with her family on agreed-upon conditions to meet up with Max:

1) Both had to have negative COVID test results (which were only being done through appointments at pharmacies then)

2) Both had to isolate after taking the COVID tests, until they met.

Katrina was so sure there was no way any man would go through all of this just to meet her. But this man did. It was the first of many things that Max did that surpassed her expectations and previous experiences; a charming habit he continues to this day. Unfortunately for their noses, the two wanted to meet every weekend and so for weeks, maybe months, they continued this ritual, longing to feel each other's embrace again.

Slowly but surely came the scientific progress of wrangling this devastating virus. And with that came more dates, more adventures, their bond deepening every day. That bond has seen them through so much. Graduations, birthdays, health issues, meeting families, vacations, job changes, the raucous geo-political landscape, selling and buying homes, adopting dogs, and so much more.

Until the day came that Max knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with this beautiful woman. She, after all, was the dream he had always carried in his heart. In her eyes, he saw so much love, and the future he wanted to build with her. That's how it came to be that one November night at a special restaurant for the two, Max rose from his chair with a ring in his hand, knelt beside Katrina and lovingly asked her to be his bride, to accept him as her husband, and to vow their eternal love to one another.