NLH took this photo. I can tell by the look on my face -- it was LOVE...

We were young, I was 20 & he was 19 but I knew one thing for sure, he was the one true love of my life.

I worked at Islip’s MacArthur airport and it was 1984.  Working the ticket counter one night for the airline I spent almost 20 years with, a young man came up to me and asked one question: “Can I have a job?”  I was working alone and the entire airport (which could fit into the back of a VW Bug) was empty.  I wasn’t even going to look up, but I did and that’s when I saw them, they were the most beautiful blue eyes that I had ever seen and they were attached to this young man with the beautiful smile that when in full force, seemed bigger than his face!  I’m sure that I gasped because he was so unbelievably handsome that I had to catch my breath.  He was charming.  Prince Charming, to be sure.  I composed myself and told him that the manager of the station was away on vacation and he’d have to check back in a week.  He lingered there with me, making me completely nervous, which was completely out of character for me.  I was not a shy girl, by any stretch of the imagination but this beautiful being who was talking with me had me spinning in circles that were not visible to him (thank goodness)!  I had to get back to work, so he walked away.  Somehow I felt that I’d lost my one chance at ever seeing him again and my heart sank.

A few weeks later, I was, once again working the ticket counter in an empty airport when a guy I knew from another airline came over to the counter and he was accompanied by the beautiful blue eyed young man.  Once again, his smile made it to me before the rest of him and I was dazzled by his presence.  We were introduced and he said, “Oh, I know Jill, we met a while back when I asked her for a job and she told me to come back when the boss was back in town.”  I blushed (another characteristic that was not like me) and couldn’t keep my blue eyes off of his blue eyes.  We ended up hanging out together that night once I was off work and we even kept the conversation going at an All-Night Diner that we met at once everyone else went home.  We spoke and ate french fries or something, but we were there until 4am.  In the parking lot, saying good night, he leaned over and kissed me.  I kissed him back and when he pulled away he said, “Ahh, total acceptance.” 

That’s how it began.  The One.  The Love of My Life.  The One Who Got Away.  The One I Still Think About.  The One I Wish I Could Be With Today.