Louis Mancha and Jim Madden attended Purdue University in Indiana to pursue their PhDs in philosophy. Of course they met and became friends (it makes sense when you know them both), and after years of doing whatever young prospective professors do in the 90s, Jim and Jen Madden asked Louis and Mary Mancha to be the godparents of their first child, William Edward Madden II. By that point, Louis and Mary already had two children of their own--Salvatore (Sam) the oldest, and Lucia (Lucy).

After graduation, the Maddens moved to Kansas and the Manchas moved to Ohio. Doomed to be long-distance friends, they only occasionally communicated through Facebook and the yearly family Christmas card. But when the Madden card arrived at the Mancha residence Mary always joked to Lucy, "See the oldest Madden. Right there, the tall one. You're arranged to be married. We cut a deal years ago." Lucy always laughed. What a silly concept. At the time, she was pen pals with Will's little sister, Martha, and her older brother sounded very unappealing.

Years later, Lucy goes off to college, and Will joins the United States Marine Corp. And Jim visits the Manchas to give a talk at Ashland University. "You should ask Lucy to send Will letters while he's in boot camp," Jim says. Mary politely declines. Lucy was in a (very unfavorable) relationship at the time.

But more years go by, and Lucy (oh, and also Will, after a multitude of relationships while stationed in Hawaii) find themselves single. "I wish I could find myself a nice Catholic boy..." she says to her mother. And Mary already had a plan. Within a few days, Mary and Jen accrue Will's phone number, email, and PO Box, and send it to Lucy with a caveat. "Just so you know, he swears," Jen warned. But what did she have to lose? She texted him anyway.

And Lucy and Will have texted every day since then. Two weeks into speaking, Will mentioned that a band he loves would be performing in Cleveland, OH, three months from then. He'd already planned to go ("Because all marines vacation to Ohio." -Jim) and asked Lucy if she'd like to go with him. She said yes. And she said yes again, exactly one year past that first concert date when Will asked her to marry him.

Here's to many more years and many more concerts together.

-Lucy (mostly) and Will