Gabe and Andrea have spent a lot of years, they tell me, not really knowing each other. Just knowing of each other. They went to Kent Roosevelt together. Gabe ran track and was pals with Andrea's younger brother Ethan. Andrea's mom Sandra almost bought a house a stone's throw from Gabe's. They made small talk now and again at the Target where Andrea worked. It was 2017 by now, and Gabe was away at college. He FaceTimed a friend back home and guess who crashed the call? They tell me that this was when their romance finally began to take shape. And the shape it finally took, they tell me, was one of devotion and certainty. There's a quote Gabe and Andrea asked me to share with you, from Robert James Waller's novel The Bridges of Madison County, that captures the essence of those feelings quite nicely: “In a universe of ambiguity, this kind of certainty comes only once, and never again, no matter how many lifetimes you live.” They decided, ultimately, to not let such certainty pass them by.
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