Liz and Alex are engaged and will be getting married September 19th, 2010 at the beautiful Jericho Terrace in Long Island, NY. They have quite an interesting story to share. They were both volunteers at the World Trade Center after the September 11th attacks. I will let them tell the story.....
Liz’s Version: It’s such a bittersweet way that we met that I always pause to reflect on the tragedy behind such a beautiful outcome. I was a volunteer with the Salvation Army at the World Trade Center disaster site and was there from the first day on. In the beginning I stayed there but then got affiliated with “Sals” so I would go home each evening and return each morning. 9 months of my life were spent there. I was unemployed at the time so pretty much each day was spent at the site. Volunteering consumed me. It was amidst all this disaster and hurt that I met this amazing man. So here I am in this city within a city, in a hydration tent, surrounded by approximately 1200 men each day and I notice Alex. It was the month of March 2002 and I see this gator drive around the corner from our tent, almost run our gator driver Orange Rob over and I noticed him. Don’t ask me why. Maybe because he sideswiped Rob! Well, I then saw him again a few days later inside 10 House (the firehouse on Liberty) while I was stocking the coolers there with water. He smiled and I thought he had the kindest eyes I had ever seen. Well, to make a long story short, we were both in other relationships so we started a really nice friendship there. We would talk about his kids, his vacation plans, and life in general. His last day at the site was Easter Sunday 2002. A few other volunteers and I had volunteered to make breakfast at 10 House. We got there bright and early and started cooking eggs, bacon, French toast, the works. No one had gotten there yet. Well, Tommy the Tool Nazi had put the bacon in the oven without saying anything and the rest of us are busy mixing and cooking. He forgot about it too. All of a sudden there’s all this smoke in the kitchen. The bacon was burning and we had to fan the kitchen door and try to pry open a small window. In the middle of this mayhem, in walks Alex with a smirk on his face. He had wondered if we knew how to cook and had joked that we were trying to kill them. Of course he’s the first one there and I’ll always remember looking over and saying “Geez…it had to be you walking in.” We still remember that each Easter. I didn’t think I would ever see him again. Fast forward to the closing ceremonies at the site. I bump into him and Paul from his firehouse and we exchange numbers to meet up at one of the bars. Everyone was trying to meet everyone for a drink because after this day, no more site to go to each day. All these good-byes to say. All these pictures to take and remember. We kept in touch after that and after we were both single, we started to date.
Alex’s Version: Well it started at 10 and 10 when I laid eyes on Liz. I was looking over at the cooler and I noticed this beautiful woman and smiled from a distance. We began to talk and joke around to cheer each other up during and after a day at the site. On the last day of my 2 month volunteer assignment Liz and two other volunteers decided to cook breakfast and she burned the bacon. At the end of breakfast we all gathered outside to take a picture of that morning. We said good-bye and I was asked by a fellow brother if Liz was my girl. I replied no and that she was great catch. So a couple of months later we bump into each other and then exchange numbers to keep in touch. We would talk on occasion and when the time was right I asked her out. She has a amazing way of cheering you up and is compassionate and affectionate when you least expect it. I remember telling her for the first time that I loved her on November 22, 2002. From that point on, I knew I would marry her.
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