Our story

In 1978 (or thereabouts), my Dad and Eric's Mom met at St. Mary's in Michigan City. My Dad had become organist and choir director of the church choir where Andi was a member. As the story goes, a friendship formed between our families as a result and we have a few dozen pictures to prove it.

The three of us Bluhm girls and Eric and his brothers attended each others birthdays and we got together a lot. I can remember a bunch from that time, as Eric was my first close friend. I remember him being this blonde ball of insane energy and he remembers chasing me around trying to grab my pants. So really, we have identical memories of that time.

In 1981, my parents purchased Eric's parents' home in Michigan City and their family moved downstate to Logansport. My family went and visited once, within that same year I think, and that was that, as they say. I would still think about Eric and his family from time to time in the following years, but we never saw each other again.

In 2003, I was at home checking my email when something totally unexpected happened. I had an email in my inbox from Eric! I had a wave of memories and couldn't believe what I was reading. The email was short, asking only if I was, in fact, the girl he used to know all those years ago. I replied that I was who he suspected. The following email he sent told me the incredible story of how he ended up finding me.

97X (aka woxy.com), is a radio station out of Cincinnati that, unbeknownst to us, we had both been fans of for years. The station went online around 2000, and a lively set of message boards quickly developed and we both became members. Keep in mind that neither of us even lived NEAR southwestern Ohio during this time.

Apparently, I had posted on a "current song you can't stand" thread in which I expressed my hatred for the group Evanescence. Intrigued by whatever I had said, and noticing that my "location" was listed as Michigan City, Eric looked at my online profile. My profile didn't give many clues but it did have my website listed. He clicked on it and there was my name. Legend has it, Eric called his Mom when this happened to confirm his suspicion, just to be sure.

So, we emailed every so often just catching up on what we'd been up to. It became clear that we had pursued similar interests all of our lives. From the clarinet, to art, to science, to spellbowl (geeks!)... it was really pretty exhilarating to uncover it all. A few months after our online reunion, Eric emailed me and said that friends of his had bailed out on a Radiohead concert, and asked me if I'd like to go. Was he crazy??? Of course, I said, I'd die to go! Not only would I see one of my favourite bands, but we could reunite! When I found out that Jeff, his brother, was coming, it took little to convince Kate, my middle sister, to come as my date.

So, Radiohead happened. If you're familiar with the now-off-the-air show Ally McBeal, you might remember a scene where Ally, upon meeting a guy, had (literal) arrows fly through the air and pierce her chest. That's pretty similar to what seeing Eric for the first time after nigh 20 years was for me. That, or being struck by a large rock or being punched in the gut. He sent my brain into a tailspin and we, who are normally talkative and social, found ourselves staring at the ground and being stone quiet during most of the reunion. It was crazy.

We knew something more was going on between us, but, we were both in difficult periods at the time. It took months of fits and starts before our relationship began to bloom. No matter how hard things got, we had something behind us, pushing at us, telling us to keep pursuing this... that something incredible was there for us to unearth.

Fast forward through lots of long distance communication, visits, concerts, ball games, and the like...

In June of last year, I was making my usual weekend trip up to Ann Arbor from Chicago (I know, crazy). Eric had planned that we would go horseback rising and have a picnic. So, on Saturday, the 11th, we set out to have fun with the horses and had packed a ton of awesome food for afterward. Since it was an unusual weekend, what with the horseback riding and all, Eric had brought along his camera and was snapping away all day.

Aside: yes, the uniqueness of the weekend should have raised suspicions in me. A few months prior it would have, in fact. But, I had thought I'd seen "signs" before and it hadn't panned out (much to my disappointment), so, I had thoroughly trained myself to not see them anymore. ;)

After we were finished riding, we made our way to Saline. The first time I came to Michigan to visit, we went to Curtiss Park, and that's where Eric suggested we go to eat. This was perfectly fine by me; the park has kickass old school swings.

Once we were in Saline, we made our way towards the park. Eric missed the turn, so we had to turn around in the parking lot of the restaurant/wedding reception place next door. As we drove into the entryway, I spotted a sign noting the couple having their wedding there that day. It read, "Megan & Eric". I yelled at Eric, "Did you see that? Give me the camera!"

He had no idea what I was talking about, but when he saw it, he thought the jig was up. He feared that now I'd be expecting a proposal and that all of my family was there waiting for us, or something. What did I think? I just thought it was a crazy coincidence! I could tell from the look on his face that he was as shocked as I was. I got the picture, and we drove over to the park with me blabbering the whole way about how crazy that sign was, and Eric (I'm guessing) totally freaked out given what he was about to do.

We enjoyed our lunch of sandwiches, fancy cheese, fruit, and the like. It rained a little; it was a nice laid-back afternoon. Soon enough, I was enticed by the aforementioned swing set and had to jump on them. Eric snapped a bunch of pictures which he had also done the first time I'd swung on those swings during my first visit.

Snap. Snap. Snap. He was obsessed with picture taking, saying, "I'm really bad about getting film developed. I'll leave a roll in the camera for years. Let's make sure we finish off this roll."

He handed the camera over to me and I made him the subject of a few pictures until the film ran out. "Load the other roll", he requested, as I began walking back to our picnic table.

Snapping open the film canister, I stopped. A glint of silver hit my eye.

"What is that?" "WHAT IS THAT?" I repeated it over and over again, getting louder and louder. I couldn't say anything else and my hands were shaking.

I looked over to Eric to find him on one knee, next to me.

I'm sure you've surmised that I said "Yes!" a million times. But, if you were Eric would you expect to get a beating for having pulled one over on the "un-trickable"?? Because that's what I did next. I COULD NOT BELIEVE how he'd gotten one over on me so cleverly!

We went back to our picnic and shared some wine. I got to hear the whole sorted tale of deception and intrigue and we both marveled at the stunning moment of an hour before...

The sign with our names on it!!