From: Krystin, 28, Portland, OR
To: Eric, 29, Portland, OR

I remember the day we met like it was yesterday, the day I was sent in to wake a sleeping boy in a borrowed bed. I had just turned 20, still clinging to an idealistic dream of love, and you had a sweetness about you that confirmed this ideal was somehow tangible.

You shared my love for The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, and you smelled like fresh cut carrots. You were perfect.

A whirlwind love affair and a few days later, you returned home Idaho. I felt like a piece of me went with you, and yet I barely knew you. You haunted my dreams and brought fever to my rainy days. I eyed your address with suspicion, and put my heart on paper. That’s when my crusade began to make you realize you couldn’t live without me.

For the next two years we lives separate lives in separate towns, but the letters and mixed tapes seemed to fill the temporary void. Time away from school was spent in your arms, and time in school was made up of minutes without you. An entire summer filled with the Sawtooth Mountain views and hot spring baths derived from the Salmon River made Senior year in Eugene…miles away from you…almost unbearable.

When I graduated, you finally made the move. We fashioned a home out of a first floor apartment we shared with squirrels who stole fruit from our tables. We went on dates, allowed strange musicians to crash on our floor, and felt our way through this new thing called an adult relationship.

Next came Portland. You held me when my mom had cancer, and continued to hold me when you yourself was diagnosed. The whole experience cast a new color on our lives, and despite the pain and fear, everything became a bit brighter and so much more important. We grew to appreciate each other on another level, and found a deeper trust.

When we finally married the day after we met, six years later…we were already married. It was a formality, a show to make our family members more comfortable with something that had actually occurred years ago when we exchanged vows in a tiny bathroom in NE Portland.

As each day follows, my love for you continues to grow. It’s an endless wonder, a bottomless pit that could be carved through this world and into another. I can’t wait for the day that our family grows beyond the you and me of it all, and our incredibly precious children grow up to marvel at how much two people can truly love each other.

Krystin