Natalie and I have been friends since our freshman year at Furman University. Always a beautiful Catholic friend, even though she was in the Army for many years and we lost touch for a bit as a result, we got back in touch the week before she was married. We stayed in touch ever since. We have visited each other in every place that we've lived. Because I encouraged her to be pro-life, she has always credited me with the birth of her first son Gregory, who is also my godchild. I watched her husband grow from an atheist into a beautiful catholic who went through seminary and is now a youth minister. I felt so blessed to be one of the few that was invited to this surprise birthday party. When Natalie arrived we jumped out and yelled surprise. She was so excited and happy!
Gregory Joseph and Justin, Natalie's sons, could not be there for the birthday party so they were there on zoom.
Natalie was especially excited that I was driving a Mustang convertible and asked to take a picture and go for a ride.
And now for the history of Natalie and I through pictures. These are the pictures I submitted for a special book honoring Natalie on her birthday:
This is our very first picture together at Pete's headed to the movies to see Michael J. Fox in for love or money in 1993. When we were sophomores at Furman.
Here we are hiking at Jones gap in 1994. You can see Natalie has her combat boots on.
Natalie ended up transferring to the college of Charleston to go to nursing school and we lost touch for a while until a week before her wedding and Brian and I were invited. Natalie's wedding was at the cathedral of saint John the Baptist in Charleston, and Brian and I drove 5 hours in a non-air conditioned car in the summer to attend!
Then in 1998 Natalie was the matron of honor at my own wedding where she was pregnant with Gregory.
When I was living in Connecticut with Brian going to Yale, Natalie and Greg were stationed at Fort Drum in upstate New York. We were able to visit a few times then and in this picture we are at the castle in Thousand Islands, NY.
Here I am at Gregory's baptism. Gregory was a very special baby in that he was conceived because I convinced Natalie and Gregg to be pro-life. I was named Gregory's godmother. Brian is now Gregory's honorary godfather, but at the time he was not catholic yet.
Later, I also visited Natalie at Fort Hood in Texas. I got to take care of Gregory for a week when he was a toddler!
Natalie and Greg were also Leia's godparents. So here we all are at saint Thomas More in Chapel Hill when Leia was less than a month old.
Leia also visited her godmother Natalie when she was around 9 or 10 and was very impressed with her godfather's collection of swords.
The last time Leia visited with Natalie was when they were still stationed in Georgia, I believe and right before they left. Here we are with Natalie and Greg and their 3 sons. You can see that Leia is wearing her Xavier college sweatshirt which is where Gregory went to school.
Here we are hiking at Jones gap in 1994. You can see Natalie has her combat boots on.
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