The Fountain Family
Rick and I met in June of 1998. I was a flight attendant and he is an aircraft mechanic at Mesaba Airlines. I was in Canton/Akron, OH (CAK) with a broken airplane. While I was waiting on the airplane with my crew for 5 hours, he was returning to Detroit from Pittsburg to a plane waiting for him to head to CAK. He finally arrived and it took less than 1 minute to fix it. My passengers had all been rerouted earlier in the day, so it was just Rick and I on the way back. I poured him 4 cups of coffee on the 32 minute flight. We talked about our families all the way back.
When we landed, he asked for my email address. We exchanged email addresses. Two days later, he asked me on a date. We went to see the movie Entrapment. Rick wanted to see Star Wars as it was opening night for the first movie in the prequel. But I didn't want to sit in a crowded sold-out theater with a bunch of sci-fi geeks. So he settled for his favorite actress at that time... Catherine-Zeta-Jones. Of course, I have always had a thing for Sean Connery. It was a great evening. We spend 3 full days together and that was it.
October 30, 1998 Rick asked me to be his wife. Of course, I said yes. We got married the following October in Garden City, MI. We had a beautilful reception and dance. Our honeymoon was a one week Western Caribbean Cruise on Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Seas. We boarded in Miami, then stopped in Labadee, Ocho Rios in Jamaica and then Cozumel in Mexico before returning to Miami. It was an incredible week of Mango Tango, fun, sun, amazing meals, new friends and romance.
As we have settled in to our new life together over the last few years, we have been through many changes together. Mostly related to my restless job syndrome. We have had a few bouts of health issues with Rick's cancers. But we are both doing well and seem to handle crisis well together.
It took us a few years, but we finally had a baby in September 2005. His name is Wallace Ellsworth Fountain. He was named after my grandfather, Wallace and Rick's grandfather, Ellsworth. We call him Wally. Rick and I never knew Ellsworth as he died too young. But I have to say, he is the spitting image of my Papa. So many times, I look at him and see little things that are truly Wally. Sometimes it is in the way he leans against someting, sometimes it is when he is concentrating on something with his tongue slightly out of his mouth. We have been truly blessed with him in our lives.