It all started six years ago in the Juniors department at Dillard’s. As I was wandering around an older petite lady tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to come to her house for her to read my palm. Well, like any young girl I immediately called a girlfriend and we drove to her house and listened to what she had to say. My first question of course was “WILL I EVER GET MARRIED?” She told me that I have already met my forever but I’ve never taken the time to get to know him. I’ve let him pass by and our paths keep missing each other.
With that being said, years passed and no love interests stuck until a few years ago. I accepted a position as a Travel Director at Maritz where I globe-trotted around the world. At the time, Shannon was also a TD. This was hands down and always will be the best job, EVER. I worked this role for a year and we never saw each other. Not once. Not at an airport, never got assigned to work the same program or even ran into each other in St Louis. Fast forward to November 2015. There I was hanging out with other Travel Directors on the second floor of a cute duplex celebrating a co-worker’s birthday. Mr. Shannon McCoy walks in and caught my eye. I purposely walked around right in front of him, lingered a little too long and NOTHING. Finally, I introduced myself and got a firm handshake. No follow up, no exchanging of phone numbers, no invite to come over and talk to him. I left the party thinking well, that’s that.
“Hey Cardinals Fans! Welcome back to Busch Stadium!” A typical intro I would shout on the in-game mic. My ringing voice stood out to one fan. As they say, men don't respond well to subtleties and wouldn't you know it took appearing on the Jumbotron for him to finally take notice of me and what reaction did I get, a Facebook message.. Well, well, well.. Shannon McCoy finally decided to reach out with a very breezy “Hey! I’m at the game, is that you on the big screen?” I guess my side hustle as an STL Team Fredbird Girl brought me more than fun money and great times. And folks, this is where our love story kicks off. Six years and eight months after that innocent palm reading - I had met my forever.
Let's just say if Up In The Air and The Bachelor had a baby, minus the affairs and battle for the last rose.. that was the equivalent to our first year of dating. We were flying to meet each other in Paris over weekends, grabbing dinner in Austin, getting scuba certified in the Bahamas to snagging 1:1 time while checking passes to a private Gwen Stefani concert. Of course it wasn’t all glitz and glamour. We also described it as a “Long Distance Relationship Amped by 100.” We had numerous FaceTime dinner dates, wouldn’t physically see each other for months or even be able to talk to each other due to different time zones. We went through a million highs and some occasional lows but the important thing was the love we had for one another was consistent. We eventually checked into one more flight and put away our passport for a little bit and took new steps in our career.
I’d always considered myself a good and thoughtful gift giver but I knew I had met my match - with that being said, I never knew what he would have up his sleeve for the proposal. And of course, it exceeded all of my expectations. He popped the question on the top of a Hong Kong high rise overlooking the entire skyline. This day 36 years ago was when my parents bought a one way ticket to start their American Dream and needless to say it was the same day my fortune came to life.
Oh! The fortune teller.. you may be thinking where have you two missed each other? We have made the connection that we were neighbors in an extremely remote, tucked away townhome neighborhood in the middle of Columbia, MO. He never went to school there and I was out but decided to stay an extra year. I know, weird.
But now, here we are, happily planning our wedding without consulting freelance fortune tellers just two people fortunate to have found each other.