Living Donor Love

Ron met his future mother-in-law before he met me. My mom was working as a family life educator for Jewish Family and Community Services. She did a program for singles and Ron was one of the participants. Apparently when the program was over, Ron commented to my mom that he was disappointed that he hadn’t met someone. My mom remembered this comment and one day I got a call from my dad. He asked if it would be okay if they gave my phone number out to two men. I had already been on some blind dates and though none of them had worked out I thought why not.

So I said okay and two or three days later, Ron called me. He lived in Deerfield, and I lived on the north side of the city of Chicago, but he worked in downtown Chicago, so he was okay with coming into the city. We agreed that he would come to my apartment building and then walk across the street to the Mesopotamian restaurant. That Friday, Friday July 13th, we met in the lobby of my building. Once we got to the restaurant, we spent an hour or so talking over appetizers. The conversation flowed and he listened well. When he walked me back to my building, he actually said that he thought it had gone well and we set up another date. I was impressed and pleased that he had spoken up and I wasn’t going to have to sit around waiting for the phone to ring or wondering if I should call him. And of course, this was back in 1990, well before everyone had a cell phone in their pocket.

Eventually, I started spending my weekends in Deerfield. Professionally, I was going through a difficult stretch with jobs, and Ron proved to be supportive and a good listener. By May of 1991, I moved out to Deerfield. Since I rented an apartment and he owned a condo, it was easy to figure out who was doing the moving. On July 5th 1991, I got home from work and he was already home since he had had the day off. It was a beautiful summer day so he and I decided to go for a swim in the private pool at the condo development where we lived. We had the pool to ourselves and, after a while, Ron proposed to me.

On May 3rd, 1992, we were married at the Midland Hotel, now the W Hotel. This past week, Ron was watching our wedding video and commented that I cried through a lot of the wedding. His statement was accurate, but not bad – they were all happy tears.

And that second man that my mom wanted to give my number to? A few years later when I asked my mom about the second guy, she laughed and said that she had lied about there being two men because she thought it sounded better. I’m not sure if I agree with that, but who cares when the one that did exist happened to be The One.