How I Met My Husband: Going That Extra Mile

by Jean C. Gordon

My husband and I met in a Western Civilization class the second semester of our freshman year at Genesee Community College.No bells or whistles or fireworks. But I can still picture our meet as if it were a few days ago, rather than 43 years ago. He and Laurie, a girl I worked on the student newspaper with, and I all sat in the middle back of the classroom that first day. We talked for a while after class and went our separate ways.

I, the quintessential good girl, honor student was drawn to his bad-boy look — long hair, beard, well-worn jeans and jeans jacket, not to mention he drove a Triumph 650 motorcycle. He was drawn to — well, I'll get to that later.

We met again a couple of days later when he turned up in my painting class, too. He was studying art. I needed an art class and thought a hands-on one would be more fun than Art History. Because the supplies we needed for class were so expensive, the art teacher suggested we students go in together on them. Mark struck up a conversation with me after class and asked where I lived. I told him, and he said we should share art supplies. He could pick them up that day after his classes and bring them over to my house since I lived "right on his way home."

It turned out his idea of "right on the way" was a little different than other people's. I lived with my parents 30 minutes south of the college, and he lived 20 minutes west of school. And I'm talking windy two-lane country roads. 

Who could resist a guy who was willing to go out of his way like that right right from the start?

As for what attracted him to me, he told me after we'd been going out a while that the first day we'd met, he'd decided he would ask either Laurie or me out. Why did he choose me? My scintillating conversation? My winning smile? No. Remember, he's a guy. He liked the way I looked walking out of the classroom better.

How I Met My Valentine

by Jean C. Gordon

Say February and what comes to mind? Why, Valentine's Day and love. So for my inaugural Classic and Cozy blog, I thought I'd tell you how I met my Valentine. After all, first meets are an important scene in any romance.

We were college freshman at Genessee Community College taking a beginning painting class. He was the artist. I thought it would be a fun class. Little did I know how fun. Since the supplies needed for the art class were expensive, the art instructor suggested we split the costs by teaming up and sharing supplies. After the first class, some of us were talking about where we were from, lived, whatever. He came over and asked if I wanted to split the supplies with him. He said he could pick them up after classes that day and drop them off at my parents' house where I lived on his way home. I could pay my half then. I figured he'd heard me say where I lived and that he lived nearby.

Leaving for on honeymoon

He stopped by that evening with the supplies. Turned out, he lived several towns away. Our house wasn't on his way home from the college by any stretch of the imagination. But that's the kind of guy he is, willing to go out of his way to help someone. We married a year and a half later.


 And here we are now.



How did you meet your Valentine?



Jean C. Gordon’s writing is a natural extension of her love of reading. From that day in first grade when she realized t-h-e was the word “the,” she’s been reading everything she can put her hands on. A professional financial planner and editor for a financial publisher, Jean is as at home writing retirement- and investment-planning advice as she is writing romance novels, but finds novels a lot more fun.

She and her college-sweetheart husband tried the city life in Los Angeles, but quickly returned home to their native Upstate New York. They share a 170-year-old farmhouse just south of Albany, NY, with their daughter and son-in-law, two grandchildren, and a menagerie of pets. Their son lives nearby. While Jean creates stories, her family grows organic fruits and vegetables and tends the livestock de jour.

Although her day job, writing and family don’t leave her a lot of spare time, Jean likes to give back when she can. She and her husband team-taught a seventh-and-eighth-grade Sunday school class for several years and currently serve on her church’s Evangelism Committee. She also shares her love of books with others by volunteering at the church’s Book Nook.

You can keep in touch with her at www.Facebook.com/JeanCGordon.Author, www.JeanCGordon.com,  @JeanCGordon or  PO Box 113, Selkirk, NY 12158.