We’re getting married!

Back in 1970 he was born in Texas and because his dad was a military, he moved and lived every where in the country, landing in and out of FL a time or two, but in 2008 he was back for good and joined the lab at the back-then called All Children’s Hospital. While her, back in 1975 decided to enter the world via São Paulo Brazil. She too moved away from home, landing in Boston where she spent more than twenty-one years before heading down to St Petersburg to work at the All Children’s Hospital lab. We worked in distinct sections of the same lab. We were peers facing the same professional challenges and, with many other peers, we often collectively came up with solutions for our teams. Because of our work views and personalities similarities, we became friends and eventually discovered we were both facing final stages of the same personal challenges too. Eventually we were on the way to rebuild our lives and why not allow the friendship to evolve into something else? We wouldn’t be able to stop it anyway! But wait, we worked together and he was promoted, so we wanted make sure we were not violating any work policies, so we headed to HR. “What if they said nope, not allowed?”, “what if one of us had to go?” - we were both single parents and needed our jobs. We were so nervous at that meeting with HR. Matt started going in circles and wouldn’t stop talking, my legs were restless and words were barely spoken- like two teenagers asking dad if we could date... suddenly phew, we could become official and still keep our jobs! Matt ran to our bosses office and spilled it all out- I got their first congrats text and almost passed out! 😂 Our love grew inexplicably fast and when we were sure of it all, we engaged our kids and they were very receptive and we all got along right away. Life has thrown a lot of challenges at us but we grew stronger with each one of them. In a 2nd trip to Boston he very romantically popped the question- without hesitation i said YES...

He had this proposal all planned out months before and he fooled me really well. He told me that the USF football would play UMASS in Boston and that would be a nice trip for us too. It was a nice getaway too, and God knows how much we needed it. The trip was sweet from the first moment we left the house- Matt is so special and romantic! We arrived at rhe airport in Boston about 10am, got our luggages, took an Uber and around 11am we were already in the Godfrey Hotel by the Boston Garden to drop off our luggages. For our surprise the room was ready and we could go upstairs- thank God, i thought, we had been out of the house since 4am! Quick trip to the room and I thought we could just relax for a little bit (I’m not a morning person and we’ve been up since 3:30a!) but Matt wanted to go for a walk, I tried using my powers to convince him but he firmly said “no Tomires, let’s go for a walk”. So we ventured towards the Boston Public Garden- fall was just begning in Boston and the air was crispy and the trees had barely started to change. Matt looked worried and distant- I thought to be some issue with the kids or their mom- gave him a little space to talk when he wanted. We walked a little faster than usual, almost as in a mission, but I again wanted to give him his space. We entered the park and crossed the Lagoon Bridge, where the proposals usually happen. We stopped to admired the most beautiful tree, the only one with red leaves, full blown beauty. We stood under it and Matt started this deep conversation, all romantic, and in a quick movement he got on his knees and asked me if I would marry him. Oh my God, the world stopped and without a doubt I said YES. We hugged, kissed and made two bystander girls cry as well. They offered to take our puctures. We texted everyone, then in full ecstasy we headed out for some prosecco and then to Monica’s Salomeria, for our favorite Italian sandwich! He spotted that tree from the uber ride- I love this guy!