In 1969 a little boy asked a little girl if she wanted to come and see his mother Lucille's African Violets. They were each seven years old. They lived in a small town called Brockport on the Erie Canal in Western, New York. She said yes. One day after school they walked through their town and over the Park Avenue Lift Bridge, stopping to look at the canal's water along the towpath. Once at his family home, the little girl heard the warm and friendly voice of the little boy's mother who was wearing a lovely flowered apron. And she saw his shy, sweet smile framed by blonde curls in the magical light of the glittering violets. The little boy saw that she looked at the violets and touched them gently with her little fingers (sigh), as she turned and smiled at him. He was sad that she had to leave when her dad Richard arrived in his bellbottom jeans to pick her up. They continued as classmates through Middle School and two years of High School, admiring each other from afar. She noticed that he had matured into a handsome soccer-playing young man with a head of hair like a lion's mane - and he noticed that she was a beautiful singer and actor in the school plays. He sat behind her in French class and often asked for "un morceau de papier." For some reason he never had any paper (wink). Their French class names were Katrine and Jacques. Katrine was Katie June Bull, a half British & half Hungarian-Russian-Polish American girl. Jacques was Craig Joseph Raleigh, a half British and half Lebanese American boy. In the summer of 1977, Katie moved back to New York City, where she had originally come from. They each lived full lives, marrying good people and giving birth to beautiful children. Katie raised Hannajane and Hudson. Craiger, (as he is known by many), raised Austin who married Alexis, his daughter-in-law. As life would have it, decades later, Katie & Craig each found themselves single again and one day Craig reached out to Katie and asked to visit. She said yes. It's a longer story and one we will share at our Wedding! When a man pulls up in his pick-up truck and unloads a seven foot piece of driftwood from their beloved hometown lake, plus some salmon jerky and alpaca socks - a woman falls in love. When a woman sings some jazz in man's ear, he loves her too. Soon living together, they walked to their vegetable garden one day where his "Will you marry me," and her "Yes!" joined the forest frog-pond choir in celebration of that love. The rest is history in the making!