Our Story
Everything you ever wanted to know about "The Jamies" from the first time their eyes met...to the night they got engaged. How did they meet? When did they fall in love? Get the answers to these questions and more in this edition of JAMIE FAQS!
1. How did you meet?
She says... We met in 1999 at Lullabies, a little boutique I was just about to open with a partner. Jamie came to do the photography for a SunHerald story on the retail businesses in that area of town. I found out years later, he had only just started at the paper- it was one of his first assignments. I thought he was intense- he told me to forget he was there- "the photojournalist is to document history, not create it." I was definitely not looking, so I really did not notice much else about him, but my former business partner did say at the time, and reminded me again recently, that "the cute, young photographer followed Jamie around all day," and that she saw "electricity" in the air, a notable connection. Ahhh, foreshadowing. I didnt think anything of it then. Looking back now, I believe this introduction was much more than chance, it was providence.
After that, I would see him around town maybe once a year, but I never even said hi and I didn't think he would remember me.
He says: I knew that God had a reason for moving me back to Mississippi after I had been trying so hard for a long time to move as far away as possible. It started with a simple newspaper assignment to photograph the owners of a new store in Gulfport. I was immediately awestruck by the beauty of one of my subjects that day...Jamie. Unfortunately for me, she was taken at the time. Life would take Jamie and I in different directions, but fate brought her to work part-time at the paper and I would occasionally have the chance to watch her from a distance as she worked. There was an excitement each time I would get the chance to be her photographer.
2. When was the first spark? How did the first date come about?
He says...I had learned that Jamie was volunteering her nursing skills at Memorial Hospital in the days after Hurricane Katrina and was inspired to suggest that the paper mention her effort. Besides, it gave me a great excuse to be near her! In the phone conversations for the assignment, I learned that her circumstances had changed and I immediately began thinking of my next move. A few months later, against a backdrop that only the devastation of Hurricane Katrina could provide, I was standing ankle deep in rotting chickens and pork bellies when I called and asked her to a movie. The rotting meat had not inspired the call, but rather I had to act on the desire to ask her out, without letting another minute go by.
She says... I started with the paper in March of 2005, and I worked with Jamie just a couple of times. Not long after the storm, he managed to contact me at the hospital to ask if I'd take part in a Knight Ridder story about what had happened to staff after the storm. The ER was like a MASH unit and the Coast was a war zone- it was an awful time and everyone was hurting so deeply. In the middle of all this, the ER doors opened to the outside, and in he walked, in slow motion, like a scene from a movie, backlit, glowing. He smiled, and gave me a hug, and I felt this amazing sense of peace. It was one of those rare moments when time just stands still. I barely knew him, yet it was purely wonderful to see him. When he left that day, I had no expectation at all that any relationship would develop- in fact it was the farthest thing from my mind, but I did think, wow, that's an amazing person and I thanked God for a little ray of light in the darkness. In mid-November, he called regarding work he was doing with "Soles 4 Souls" to see if it could connect with some of the needs/resources of the Junior Auxiliary, and I didn't want to hang up the phone. I hinted that we should meet for coffee, but he was on his way to Scotland for an exhibit of his photography in a museum there. He called again one day in December. I asked him what he was doing and he said, "oh, I'm just standing here in some pork bellies, and I was wondering if you'd like to get together." Every now and then, you hear a sentence with words you've never heard put together before, and as my kids know, I am fascinated by that. Surely, that was a sentence no one had ever said to me before. How could I refuse?
3. When did you know this was something special?
She says... When I started to get to know him, he continually amazed me with his thoughtfulness. I think I realized this was really someone special when soon after we started dating, I got a flat tire. He came out in the rain and changed it, and then presented me with an air compressor for my car the next day, just in case. That was so typical Jamie. Everything I was learning about Jamie, how loving, caring, protecting he was, sort of gelled in that moment. I was standing in his kitchen, holding an air compressor, and I was so touched that I actually started crying.
He says...It was truly love at first sight for me, but obviously, it would take time for fate to bring us together. Until the day I learned of her volunteering at the hospital, I didn't know much about her. Up to that point, she was nice to talk to and stunning to watch from a distance; but, I really knew nothing about her. It was in that hospital room that I first came to understand Jamie's giving heart and compassion for others. It moved me.
After that first date we began to talk on the phone over a trip I took to Dallas the next week. I couldn't stop thinking of her. I took my sister shopping for a Christmas tree in Dallas and remember having this urge to bring something back to Jamie. A tree didn't seem appropriate, so I chose a nice wreath. I figured if she'd put it on her front door, she'd have a daily reminder of who had brought it to her!
4. What do you love most about her/him?
He says...Loving Jamie gives me a feeling that I've never known. She's a great mother who puts the needs of her children above her own everyday. She volunteers for many great causes and truly is someone who gives sacrificially of herself and her time to make her community a better place. She cares about others and their needs and is constantly involved in efforts to afford better opportunities for people she doesn't even know. Jamie's love is healing. It's a welcome surprise. She loves me completely and deeply and I feel it everyday.
She says... He's my hero. I've never met anyone more honest, more caring, or more devoted to wanting to do the right thing. I have seen Jamie go to amazing lengths to help perfect strangers. I've seen him go under bridges to get homeless people to take them to shelters on the night of a hard freeze. I've seen him stop on the roadside dozens of times to change someone's flat tire, he catches bad guys singlehandedly, and just recently, I saw him convince his doctor to let him leave the hospital on election day long enough to get to the polls to vote, before coming back for another 2 days of treatment after the brown recluse spider bite incident. He's talented, artistic, passionate, and creative. He always looks for the silver lining, and appreciates what is good without taking it for granted. He's strong. He rarely complains, even when he has every right too. He works unbelievably hard, and he loves me and my children so deeply. He has taught me about love, faith, and perseverance. At my darkest hour, I prayed to God for help, and I truly believe, well, I know, that he was the answer God sent me.
He popped the question...
...and she said "yes!"
James proposed on December 6. Here's a pic from that night. Do we look happy or what?
We had dinner plans, and when Jamie came to the house to pick me up, he surprised me with red roses and a 1956 Bentley with a driver waiting outside. He said we had a little time before our reservation, and asked if I would like to go for a ride.
We went up to my parent's house. For a moment I had a thought- big romantic date, visit to my parents... is he going to ask my dad for my hand and propose? But he didn't, and I know Jamie would never ask me to marry him without asking my parents first, so the thought quickly passed. Mom and Duke got a kick out of seeing the antique car, and after visiting, we headed on to the restaurant.
Now, what I didn't know is, Jamie had gone to visit them (and ask) the week before! So they already knew, but they didn't let on.
We arrived at Emeril's and were seated at 'table 10' with all the VIP treatment. It was a great dinner, and during dessert, we were talking and he pulled out a note- a love letter. I read it and I was really moved by it, thinking what a perfect night it had been, how it couldn't be any more romantic, and just then he stood up. I looked at him for a second thinking "where's he going?" and he got down on one knee right there in the middle of the restaurant. Everyone around us stopped and looked to see what was going on, and he said 'I would be honored if you would be my wife-- will you marry me?' And I said yes...
