Amy W’s Story

The story of our engagement is a great example of good things coming from bad things!  Our story began in August 2002, some 5 years before Matt and I ever met.  I was 4 short months away from graduating from nursing school (I was hoping to work in labor and delivery when I graduated) when I lost my dad to pancreatic cancer after he courageously battled it for 3 years.  Needless to say, his death was the most difficult thing I have ever experienced.  I had always been a “Daddy’s girl.”  He had such a zest for life…he had a great sense of humor and loved to be the life of the party, and he loved music.  He had played Big Band-style music on the saxophone since high school (almost 50 years!) and could do a mean imitation of Louis Armstrong.  After he died, I decided that I wanted to go into oncology and dedicate my life to helping people like my dad, and after graduating, I started a job on the leukemia/lymphoma unit at Emory University Hospital.  I knew I had made the right decision and that oncology nursing was exactly where I belonged.

Fast forward to Spring 2007.  I had since left Emory and was working as a chemotherapy infusion nurse at Georgia Cancer Specialists.  I still loved working with cancer patients and cherished the unique opportunity my job gave me to get to know my patients, as many of them were receiving treatment once a week for several months.   One day, a new patient, Donna, came in to begin treatment for breast cancer.  I was one of Donna’s nurses and got to know her and her husband, Chuck, quite well.  One day (July 24, 2007, to be exact!), one of Donna’s sons, Matt, came to see her during her chemotherapy infusion.  She introduced us, and Matt and I had a nice conversation.  He was so cute, and had such a great personality!  When he left the clinic that day, I turned to one of my co-workers and said, “Donna’s son is really cute! “ We laughed about it and joked that it would be funny if Matt and I got together and Donna ended up being my mother-in-law.  I really didn’t think too much more about it until the next day when Donna told me that Matt was impressed with me.  I was a little nervous, but I gave her my phone number to pass on to Matt.  He called the next day, and over the next week we spent hours and hours on the phone.  We had our first date on August 1, 2007.  I knew almost from the time we met that he was the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

On Tuesday, November 3, 2009, after a little over 2 years of dating, I was working hard to get ready to leave on a business trip to Europe the following day with the oncology medical education company I now work for.   I was really stressed and had a lot to do that evening at home to get ready to go.  Matt had called me earlier in the day, and we agreed to meet for a quick low-key dinner so I could get all of my work done and still get to bed at a decent hour since I had to leave for the airport so early.  When I was leaving work that evening, I texted Matt and we decided where to meet for dinner.  I walked to my car, and there was a big Styrofoam ball hanging from my rearview mirror with a note hanging from a string that said “If curious, pull me.”  I pulled the string, and confetti of wedding bells, hearts, and flowers came pouring out of the ball with a note that said, “Will you…..”  My ring was on the end of the string, and Matt appeared from around the corner.  He got down on one knee, and asked me to be his wife with a beautiful engagement ring!  I immediately started crying and said “Yes, OF COURSE!!!”  Matt then told me the story of my ring.  He had been asking his mom (who, thankfully, is cancer-free and doing great!)for advice on what to get for me over the previous few months, and she gave him her engagement ring, telling him she really wanted him to have it to use for my ring.  He used her diamond as the center stone of a 3-stone ring and not only was it gorgeous, but it was so special because it came from Donna, the person who introduced Matt and me in the first place!  We then went to dinner, where Matt’s family surprised us with champagne and officially welcomed me into their family.  It was such a special night that we will never forget for the rest of our lives.

Matt and I will be married on August 14, 2010, almost 3 years to the day from our first date.  Since I won’t have my dad there to dance with me for the father-daughter dance, I will dance with my new father-in-law to a recording of my dad singing “Hello Dolly” in his best Louis Armstrong voice, a song that I used to beg him to sing all the time when I was a little girl.  I know he will be there in spirit and will be smiling down on his daughter and new son-in-law on the happiest day of their lives, knowing he, too, had a hand in bringing them together.