First love, first kiss, first heartbreak
Bill + Jeanie
Our story begins in 8th grade, at JFK Middle School, in Massachusetts.
We were introduced by a mutual friend- It was love at first sight.
We held hands as we walked the hallways between classes. At the lunch table, we’d take turns dropping a pencil on the floor and sneak a kiss thinking no one would notice. We were head over heels in love.
One day we sat beneath the huge oak tree in Jeanie’s front yard and built a house of twigs and branches with acorns and pretended it would be our house filled with our future family.
We were each other's first love, first school dance, first kiss, and also each other’s first heartbreak. The adults decided that at 13 we were too young to be so in love, and made us break up. We recovered from the pain and simply went on with life- both marrying others, having children, and grandchildren.
About 45 years later our paths crossed at an impromptu gathering of our High School alumni. Jeanie was sitting at a table talking with a woman. I can’t believe I did this, but I interrupted their conversation and told the woman, “I need to sit there”. She stood up, I sat down and we talked the rest of the night.
We began seeing each other and spent a lot of time in the sunshine in a local park. There, beneath a tree by the water we fell in love again. A year or so later we married and exchanged vows at that very spot. When the time comes, we hope to have our ashes spread around that tree in celebration of our falling in love again, and as a declaration that no one can ever again tell us we can't be together. We'll always be together under Our Tree.
