The Story of Rosamaria and Aaron – as told by Gabriela (DiCristoforo) Salem

My sister is many great things but the thought of writing personal prose gives her hives so me and my Bachelors in English have been tasked with illustrating how she and Aaron met, fell in love, and started to plan their lives together.

Once upon a time, my now-husband (Luke) and I met a tall, blonde man at a church event at our parish here in Columbus. He seemed friendly. We started seeing him around more and more as our friends started to overlap–but never overlapped with meeting my sister. One night in December after a Christmas party where Aaron was in attendance Luke turned to me and said “I think Aaron and your sister would be good together.” To which I responded with something along the lines of, “Oh sure, he’s nice!” That was the extent of our efforts.

Cut to Rosamaria. Where was she in all this? I’ll tell you where she wasn’t and that was looking for a boyfriend!

A month later, amid the bleak mid-winter Luke organizes a group of friends to go to an escape room. Despite an unforeseen 4-6” of snow that day, a group of us braved the elements in the name of fun puzzle games and friendship. One of those brave souls was Aaron–and, after almost bailing several times because of the weather or a cold or something, Rosamaria too!

When she tells this story she will tell you, “I was NOT looking cute that day.” All Aaron remembers was her sassing back to the check-in person about something. What they both remember (as do all who were there) was their romantic first meeting: being chained to a prop bed with 6 other people in a kid-napping themed escape room.

Now I was too high off adrenaline from “escaping” being kidnapped to realize the two actually hit it off really well! It wasn’t until the next evening (we had a really eventful weekend apparently!) when we all found ourselves at an annual wine tasting fundraiser put on by a local Catholic networking group that sparks really flew. Rosamaria and Aaron were conveniently seated at the same table where they got to laugh and joke with friends over wine and snacks. What a time! Aaron, being the go-getter that he is, made sure he didn’t leave the place without a way to contact the pretty girl chatting him up about the cold war and rock and roll when the night was through. Rosamaria, surprised and impressed by the direct request that evening to be taken out on a date, agreed because she also enjoyed the handsome guy’s jokes and interesting conversation about George Washington and Mel Brooks.

They went on their first date at Marcella’s in the Short North for Happy hour–because that way there wasn’t pressure to stay for a whole meal in case it got awkward. In the end it was reverse awkward because they ended up getting a pizza or two and the waitress was probably like, “I need this table for people getting dinner, why are you staying so long.”

At the time of writing this, I realize it’s been about two years now to that day. Since then, Rosamaria and Aaron spent their time bringing each other back and forth to their hometowns to get to know their families, watching movies (niche 70’s-80’s classics), hosting game nights for friends, going to church and going on many adventures to the discount store run by Menanites. I described them once as, “pretty much inseparable from the start.” Which was met with disdain by Rosamaria– “We’re not codependent, we have our own lives still!!” she said. But see I didn’t mean it in a weird clingy way–I just meant what I saw; Yes, they have always remained the strong individuals they always were, with their own lives… but they just seemed to slowly work those two lives together in a natural way. All of which will come to see its full potential as they enter into their marriage! Congratulations Rosamaria and Aaron, we are so excited to see what God has in store for you!!