A love story

SIX YEARS AGO TODAY....

I was sitting in church next to my Dad just as I had for the previous 3 Sunday mornings. In two more weeks, my dad would be done with rehab (from a stroke he suffered) and I would go back to my life in Lancaster. I missed my friends and I was fortunate enough that my boss was letting me work remotely for the entire month of July. My plan was to move in with my friend Missi once back in Lancaster. Life was good --- I was in a happy place.. great job, great friends and my family was finding a way to move on since Mom's death. Yep... it was just another Sunday morning and yet it changed my life forever.

"Where is Glen?" I thought as the service was just starting. My brother-in-law usually sat close by with my niece and nephew when my sister, Ruth, was playing the piano as she was this Sunday morning. I turned around to see if I could catch a glimpse of him. I saw him several rows back and he caught my eye and rolled his head back as if to tell me to look behind him. I'm thinking.. what in the world?? And then.. I see him... Steve Malave... Steve is looking right at me.. and he mouths my name.. "Beth???" Wow... how long has it been??? I do the math... 15 years!!


Steve & I met 15 years prior while he and Ruth attended NYU. They belonged to the same Christian Club on campus and he invited some friends to go to a Christian Coffee House at his church and she invited me along as well. We went to Brooklyn to pick Steve up and the very first thing he ever said to me was "Ruth said she had a sister, but she never told me how beautiful you are". I about rolled my eyes right then and there... what a "Rico Suave" if you know what I mean... Anyway.. Steve & I would see each other at these coffee houses every month for the next year and a half. We became friends and I think we each had a little crush on the other, but nothing came of it. Then, I went off to Messiah College, and he graduated NYU and moved all around the country. We lost touch... for 15 years


Back to that fateful Sunday... I'm sitting in my pew and thinking to myself.. well, I'm certainly not the thinner 17 year old he knew back then... lots of "life" has happened to me since then and I'm sure to him as well. He might not even like who I am today or even have given me a second thought in all these years. At the end of service, Steve came right over to me though and started talking and it was if a day hadn't passed since our conversations at the coffee house. As I'm talking to Steve, my brother-in-law sticks his head back into the sanctuary, catches my eye and mouths to me "Invite him over for dinner at our house"... So I did and he came. Needless to say, we were all excited on the way home that he was going to come... everyone except Ruth who, as I mentioned, was on the piano that morning and had no idea that Steve was coming to her house for a meal. When she called the house on the way home, she was more excited than anyone when she learned the news. (Ruth had seen Steve at church several times and always wanted us to run into each other).


Of course, I have to mention that my niece (Rachel) and nephew (Matthew) who were about 7 and 5 at the time, could not contain themselves that Aunt Beth was a having a "boy" over for dinner. Minutes before Steve arrived they were saying things like "If you two get married then we'll have two uncle Steves! (My brother's name is also Steve)." So I had to beg or bribe them to please not say that in front of Steve when he arrives. The first thing Rachel said upon Steve's arrival was "You changed your shirt... my Daddy said you'd change your shirt". I wanted to crawl under the table. My poor nephew was promised an afternoon at the pool (that was before Steve was thrown into the equation) so all throughout dinner, Matthew is asking Glen (in front of everyone) "When is he leaving so we can go to the pool?" Steve took it all like a trooper.


The funniest part of that day was during dessert. Steve told me he was going to stop off to pick up a pastry to bring to dinner that day. So, Glen told me if he brings a banana cream pie or a Boston Cream Pie (Glen's favorites) then this was "meant to be".. This would be "the" guy. So, Steve arrives and upon first inspection Glen is bummed because it looks like a fruit tart and some other pie... But, during dessert, Glen takes a bite of one of the pies... about drops his fork and exclaims to me "It's banana cream!" He was so excited. Steve is clueless to the whole thing and I just try to down play my tremendous grin.

Sorry this is so long.. but I get excited every time I think of this special day so long ago. It was the answer to years of prayer. God knew exactly what I needed and when I needed it. I thought my life was great the way it was... but God had something greater in store for me. By the end of that night 6 years ago, I knew Steve was the man God had for me. I didn't tell him that of course (you don't want to scare the guy away).

Happy "reconnect-a-versary" Steve. I'm so glad God brought you back into my life six years ago today. I love you.