The story, like all love stories, starts with our first meeting. This story is clearly not love a first sight because Jill and I first met when I was in Middle School at Katy Hester’s (The Maid Of Honor) house in Fairfax, VA, which I don’t remember at all, but Jill does. Our first chance meeting was followed by meeting in July 2024 in Grand Lake, Colorado, for Katy’s 21st Birthday. At the first meeting, which I remember, Jill came through the crowd of people gathered to celebrate to see me, and she walked up to me, smiling and cheerful, almost startling me to say, “Hi Tom,” to which I responded, “Do I know you?”

I didn’t get to know her much on the trip in Colorado. Our relationship truly started at Jacksonville University along with Katy. And Katy's roommate, none other than that tiny, happy girl she brought to Colorado, Jillian Ellen Michelson. We started to gain affection toward one another by talking at Katy's and meeting at Church, which came to a point one evening in my first semester. Jill and Katy were interrogating me about a friend of theirs, and in doing so, the words slipped out of my mouth that I liked Jill. Katy tried her best to redirect and sweep that under the rug, but the truth was out, and so I told Jill right there, after Katy left the room to give us space, that we should go minigolfing sometime. She said “, Tom, that's not a question,” so I asked Would you like to go minigolfing with me? If you couldn’t infer by the state of affairs now, she said yes, and I took her on the most action-packed first date to ever happen in all of history. The day started early with lunch at a Thai place, then we went indoor rock climbing, followed by minigolf an hour away, followed by sushi, followed by coffee, followed by a long drive to St. Augustine to drop her off at a bridal shower. There we went and walked around the Fort, and I tried to set up a romantic moment to kiss, but she was too busy getting eaten by mosquitoes. So I thought I wouldn’t have my moment and took her to the Airbnb where her cousins were staying. I helped her bring her luggage up the stairs, said hi to everyone, and went back outside to say goodbye to each other. That is where we first kissed, which I’m sure she shared with her cousins after walking inside again, and I drove home fast and furious with Joy.

About a month after our first date, I was about to leave for winter break. So I came up with a plan for our last date before I left. A hike in the Timucan Preserve in JAX, there as we were walking along the trail, I pulled out a ring, pop, and did not kneel, saved that for later, but stood and asked her to be my girlfriend. We talked through winter break, and she came up for Christmas, which was the best Christmas I’ve ever had. And when I got back to school, our relationship deepened. I was told by God that I would marry Jill in a vision before I had met her parents or come to ask the question of marrying her to myself. That summer, Jill had a vision as well of us getting married, so we called Jill’s parents, and I set things straight that marriage was my intention with their daughter. That was in June; come July of last summer, I was invited to join the Michelsons in the British Virgin Islands on a sailboat charter. This was my fire, I’d say, no escape point or breathing room. So the Michelsons got to know me a bit better there, and at the end of the trip, I popped the question to Mr. Michelson and startled him the same way his daughter had startled me.

After weeks of deliberation and calls with him, he gave me the green light. I reacted like an F1 driver on the grid and planned to propose in September with Katy's help. Katy and I called and settled on the 21st night of September. That decision was a mistake, and then a blessing, because little did I know Katy was already taken that day by her Boyfriend at the time. Katy’s now Fiancée Fritz, planned to have Jill take Katy to the beach for a girls' day and stumble upon Fritz, where Katy would hear the words Will You Marry Me. In the psyop of the century me and Fritz joined plans together and got the secret past all barriers of entry to get them both to bring the other one to the beach on the 21st to be proposed to not knowing they themselves were also getting proposed to (I don’t know how we pulled that off either and it’s ok if you read that 4 times it was confusing to Fritz and I as well). So on the 21st, Jill was strolling along the beach after leading Katy to Fritz and saw something written in the sand. I’ll just let the Photos do the talking from there. As for the Future, we are going to Ireland for our honeymoon and coming back to move into an apartment in Pittsburgh. God has great things in store when you give him the reins, and I was scared just about the whole way through that his plan might fail, but the scripture says in Luke 1:37, “No word from god will ever fail”. So I do as the Lord says and follow him to death to find life, not perfectly, but never-ending.