Mockingbird Hill Cottage

I thought you might enjoy seeing this photo of the day I met my husband. It was July 4, 1994 – as you can see on the date stamp – and we were at a party in Ocean Beach thrown our friend Kathy. That, my friends, is a younger version of our new neighbor and old friend, Rick, on the right.

Rick and I had been working at our new jobs for less than a year. We drove out to Kathy’s house (which was tiny and magical and a block from the beach) together. The party was full of fellow employees of the Old Globe and also actors and designers who were working on shows that summer. Don was in town to play Malvolio in Twelfth Night.

A bit of back story: A year earlier, I had flown out to San Diego to interview for a faculty position at The Old Globe/University of San Diego. It was an intense 2 days filled with interviews at the University and at the Globe. I was exhausted. Kathy, who was a wonderful actress that I’d met when she came to teach a class at Boston University, took me under her wing. She was that way, our Kathy. (Sadly, she passed away a few months ago.) She was performing in Morning’s at Seven  at the Globe and got me a ticket for the matinee, which I watched and enjoyed. There was a guy in the cast who played a character named Homer and I thought he was very good. I remember looking at his headshot in the program and thinking that he looked interesting. His name was Don Sparks. Fast forward to a year later and at Company Call – when all the visiting artists gather and are introduced – there he was again, sitting just across the aisle from me. He was called up to the stage that day by Jack O’Brien and awarded the honor of Associate Artist. His acceptance speech was funny and self-deprecating.

So, there he was at Kathy’s party. I wasn’t working on his show, I was coaching an Irish play, and I was hanging out with those actors and with Rick. Every time I walked into the living room, this guy smiled at me. Every time. He made a point of leaning forward to catch my eye. I am usually shy about these things, but I finally bit the bullet and went over to him and introduced myself. We sat down on that sofa you see there and we chatted with each other. Rick eventually joined us.

And so began a conversation that has never stopped.

Look at our body language! We were already smitten.

We talked about – and I’m not kidding – how we couldn’t believe we were 43 and 41, respectively, with comments like, “How did we get so old???”

We were children.

Our friend, Jonathan McMurtry, took this picture and years later, slipped it into my mail slot at the Globe. What a treasure it is; the exact moment when we met.

Check out my red socks! Don still has that shirt and usually wears it on this day, but he’s in Washington, DC and it’s here somewhere. I still have that sweatshirt and wear it often.

It goes without saying that I’d love to be that thin again, but that’s not going to happen. Sigh.

On this exact date, four years later, Don proposed to me. And we got married three months later, in October.

Happy 24th, my love.