Growing up together our families were friends and the years of memories we share provide great laughter and comfort. Dennis played baseball, was a part of scouts and worked with my brothers. His dad or my dad were coaches and scout leaders. Grandma Alice was Dennis’ grandmother who babysat my youngest brother and myself. She also lived across the street from me in my adult years in our first home. 

The connections run deep and our paths always seem to cross during important moments. When Riley was born, Dennis’ son, I was in nursing school and my OB rotation happened to place me on the unit that night where I was able to follow their birth and get Dennis his OR scrubs before leaving from my shift. 

We, my late husband Jason and our two daughters Sidney and MacKenzie, lived in Hickory where we would often see Dennis and his parents, brother and Riley. Most often at the fire station, Halloween, Memorial Day parade and at Grandma Alice’s. My dad always thought so highly of the Barnum boys and loved seeing Dennis drive the firetruck. 

When I lost my husband in 2016, in a car accident, our daughters were 18 and soon to be 13. After 4 months I needed a positive outlet to deal with the stress of court, stress of greed that comes out so often with losses and to stay strong for my daughters who needed their momma. Running became a focus and I started making goals to run races locally. A year later, I was taking my youngest to an appointment and we happened to see Dennis out running - MacKenzie thought it would be great if I asked him to run with me because indoor treadmill was very dreadful at times. Several months later I finally asked him to run and after many weeks of schedule mismatches we got a chance to run. 

Light drizzle - no big deal … almost 2 miles in and we are getting poured on. Embarrassed from clingy soaked clothes and feeling every step in my squishy shoes, I kept hoping I didn’t look like a drowned rat like I felt. We ran thru the cemetery driveways where our families, fathers, and Jason are all laid to rest. Our mothers were still living at this time. As we made our way thru, he was kind enough to recognize my tears and game me a moment to gather myself. The rain stopped and we could see a clearing as we made our way back to my home. Beach towels didn’t come close to drying us but it kept us from dripping water all over as MacKenzie thought a home tour was a great idea. Dennis was so welcoming to her leading us around the house and letting her talk about every room - but how could you not notice as the sun shone and a giant bright rainbow filled the sky stretching from our home and seemingly to end near the cemetery area! 

I had cut fresh Rhubarb to make pies and stalks of it i was going to drop some off to Harold (his brother) the next day. MacKenzie mentioned it and Dennis jokingly asked why I would not be delivering it to him too - to which she thought was a great idea. What I wasn’t prepared for was the question he asked when I dropped off a rhubarb crisp to his house - he wanted to know if I would go to a friends wedding with him in two weeks. My look of shock must have been a lot because he continued on with asking me to talk to my girls and get back to him. Little did he know - it wasn’t a problem with the girls at all. They were all in. I however was so nervous I called all 4 of my older brothers and asked each of them about it. And yet again - all in as well. My coworkers - imagine 50 nurses who are more family than anything…so much sadness we lived thru together and they were even more excited to the point of bringing in dresses and locking me in a room until I showed them all of the dresses on so they could pick. That is sisterhood right there. 

The wedding was great, I knew absolutely nobody there and the tears I shed during the father/daughter dance were not seen as anything other than happy. It was the best night I had had in a very long time after so much trauma and sadness. Meeting his Fire family from Muskegon and quickly finding out how life was changing for us. My coworkers cried when they saw the smile on my face at work, my brothers were all happy to hear a spark in my voice and laughter again, my girls had moments of excitement and sadness but the end result was - everyone felt they got their mom/sister/Tammy back that was full of life again. 

Three children between us - teenage years, drivers training, high school events, two high school graduations, open houses, moving kids to college/home from college, moving kids into apartments, one college graduation with a pandemic to ruin the celebration, many fun vacations, family holidays, one graduation from the academy, first big jobs for all three of them, us working as front line - fire and nursing, talking kids thru some tough moments in their lives … our children that we share are some of our greatest accomplishments in this thing called life. The love and respect we have for them, the ability to be a family by choice and the willing support to keep the memories alive are what make us who we are.

When he proposed on March 13, 2024, on a sunset catamaran cruise in Key West, FL - he asked me what I thought about forever sunsets together. YES❤️ We couldn’t imagine a better way to spend the rest of our lives than catching sunsets,traveling the world, sharing three amazing adult kiddos together with their fur-babies and eventually retiring together where we hope to fill our time with fun adventures and some grand babies (furry or not 😎).

Not every day is going to be full of happiness and there are always going to be times when we don’t agree but one thing is for sure - the love we share will always see us thru. The amazing love and support from our family and friends that we have been blessed with from the start, will continue to be the strong foundation of our la Dolce Vita ( Love Story).

We are looking forward to a small intimate ceremony in Positano, Italy. 🇮🇹👰🏻‍♀️🤵🏻‍♂️
And we can’t wait to come home to celebrate with our children, friends and family with a reception in Grand Rapids - 10.18.2025.