You never know what will happen when you board an airplane.These past several weeks have been hectic, to say the least. Closing my physical office, opening my cyber office and having to learn the technology that keeps me in continuous contact with my clients has been a challenge. (If cut you off, I do apologize.) Once I get my Blackberry in sync with my laptop and Bluetooth, I’ll be a happy camper.
Add a wedding and a total knee replacement to the mixture and my life has been a bit stressful. My knee surgery went fine (thank you, Dr. Gustafson,) and I am home recovering, learning to walk straight, and to bend my knee at a 120 degree angle. Another challenge.
But this article is not about my tech or knee problems, it is about a love story that culminated in the wedding of my youngest daughter, Erin Allison Cox on September 6, 2009. Erin grew up in Redlands and between the Great Y Circus and cheerleading at Redlands High School, was active in the Redlands community. Erin graduated from RHS in 1998, and continued her education at the University of California at Davis followed by four years of medical school at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. Like her mother and sister, Heather Cox Tzall, Erin inherited the “travel gene” and has worked and traveled in many third world countries, including, Nicaragua, Honduras, Cuba and Uganda.
This love story actually began in June, 2007, when Erin, upon medical school graduation, was assigned by the US Army to Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, to begin her four-year residency in OB/Gyn. Earlier that April, knowing her assignment, Erin traveled to San Antonio to buy a small condo since she would be living there for at least four years. The condo was to be refurbished and available the Friday before the Memorial Day weekend, when Erin and I planned to fly back to San Antonio to start the moving-in process. Unfortunately (or fortunately as the case may be) we received notice two days prior to our travels that the condo would not close until the Tuesday after the Memorial Day weekend. I could not go with her at that time so Erin changed her reservations and left on her own from Ontario on Monday. When she changed planes in Las Vegas, she sat next to a friendly couple from San Antonio: Denise and Joe Haley. They talked all the way back to San Antonio, and by the time the plane landed, Joe and Denise had taken Erin under their wing. They drove her to Ft. Sam Houston that evening, they waited for her household goods to be delivered a few days later when Erin was back in New York for graduation, and they helped her with the delivery of her new couch a week later. To Erin, and to me, 1500 miles away, Joe and Denise were a godsend.
Their friendship continued and three months after Erin moved to San Antonio, Denise asked her if she would like to be fixed up with the son of a friend--a young man who worked in the local DA’s office. The rest is history. On September 6, 2007, Erin had a blind date with Shane Patrick Keyser, an assistant D.A. with the District Attorney’s office in San Antonio, Texas.
Shane was born and raised in the San Antonio area. He attended the University of Texas at Austin and, after traveling and working a couple of years, completed his law school education at St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio. Shane has a younger brother, Mike Keyser, and a younger sister, Erin Keyser Davis. His parents and grandmother also live in San Antonio. After dating for exactly two years, Erin and Shane were married at the home of Bill and Marjorie Handel on Sunday, September 6, 2009. Bill performed the ceremony and, as expected, was full of humor and yet very sentimental since Marjorie has known Erin since birth and Bill has known her almost as long.
Erin’s attendants included Heather Cox Tzall, New Jersey, Dr. Lisa Levine, New York, Rebecca Dengrove, New York, Cheryl Concannon Lynch, San Diego and Stacy Ellsworth, Redlands. Groomsmen were Mike Keyser, San Antonio, Chris Parker, Dallas, John Muller, San Antonio Patrick Ehemann, Virginia and David Deleon, San Antonio.
This is a love story, but also a story how travel can build new and long lasting friendships.
No comments:
Post a Comment