No real reason

I just want to say this to my family, my friends, and any assorted strangers who may pop in.

I love my man.

No, really, I seriously love this guy. I remember the first few months I knew him as a work acquaintance....he was always friendly but his Portuguese accent was so heavy (added to the fact that he is a Low Talker) that half the time I literally had no idea what he was talking about. But he would smile so charmingly that I would say, "Oh! That's so interesting!" with ZERO idea what he had just said.

He was always friendly, always interested in my day, always ready with a compliment in a non-creepy way.

When the Queen visited in 2001, we were still only work acquaintances. He was the Banquet Manager, I was the Executive Housekeeper. And when he called me with several seemingly unsurmountable problems at the last minute (it was Friday afternoon before Thanksgiving) , I told him, "Relax, I'm ON IT."

A Royal visit is always exceptionally stressful. I had my issues to contend with, he had a million more. And when Her Majesty left the hotel, everyone literally collapsed emotionally. I started to leave the banquet floor with my staff, when I heard, "Jennifer! Wait!"

Mario came over, put his arms around me, and kissed my cheek in front of everyone. "Thank you for everything."

This was a very powerful moment for me, a moment when we really Connected as co-workers. I had NO idea we would soon fall in love; at that time it was all about supporting, encouraging, and comforting someone after a stressful time. One of my favourite memories.

For months, he and I had said we should go out for a drink sometime. By this point, I could understand what he was saying 75% of the time and had grown to really like him as a person. I was married, he had been living with someone for five years, but I just really liked him, you know? So one Monday evening a month after the royal visit when I worked late, I called him and said, "Hey, let's go for that drink."

Mario is a very, very private person who would rather die than talk about himself. So I was amazed and perpelexed when he told me his life story, from his beautiful, cherished bride who died of brain cancer, to raising their two children alone, to breaking his back in a car accident, to nine days in a coma and the fact he was never supposed to walk again, to finding love again, immigrating to Canada and having three more children, to the pain of the second marriage disintegrating and his youngest children returning to Portugal with their mother.

I was STUNNED. This was not the person I knew from work. Finally I interrupted him and said, "WHY are you telling me this???"

He said, "I have no idea."

Then he reached across the table and took my hand.

And even though I didn't know it, it was at that moment we started to fall in love.


What with both of us being in committed relationships already (and me with a five year old son), What Happened Next is too messy and terrible to discuss. But eventually came the night of May 31st 2002, when he worked until midnight and then drove to my parents' house. I was waiting for him outside, at the end of the driveway with my suitcase. He got out of the car, picked up my suitcase, and said, "Let's go home."

And so we came home.

These last five years have been magical, romantic, and delightful in every way. And they have been frustrating, stressful and full of those every-day-moments when you look over at the person you are spending your life with and want to murder them. We have a ten year old boy, and we also have grandchildren. We have three pets, three cars, three different kinds of cheese in our fridge at this moment, and more than three months of no sex due to his back injury. We have Real Life.
And after almost five years, I am so so so so in love with this man that I make myself sick.

Go forth and do likewise.



(PS. Mario just read this post, and it made him cry. I'm telling you, we're in love.)