21 Days To Go

I finally got around to making a few announcements, one to the news paper and the other to St. Mike's. The newspaper announcement was rather generic, but I included this picture with it.

Roman and Theresa Salazar of Santa Fe, announce the engagement of their daughter, María Feliz Salazar to David Duran. David is the son of J. David Duran and the late Charlotte Duran of Santa Fe. The couple first met as students at St. Michael’s High School where they graduated in 1986, but had not seen each other since college where they both attended the University of New Mexico.  Last year, it was through the magic of Facebook they reconnected and are now engaged.

They plan to marry February 12 at Santa María de la Paz Catholic Community. 

This went to St. Michael's.

Imagine what happens when classmates and fellow graduates from the Class of ’86 suddenly find each other again on Facebook? For some, old friendships rekindle, for others new friendships are born and for one particular couple romance is found.

María Feliz Salazar and David Duran were graduates of the Class of ’86 and hadn’t seen each other since the days when they were both students at the University of New Mexico. They didn’t run in the same social circles in high school, but they always remembered each other fondly. They’d see each other on campus at UNM from time to time, but they didn’t hang out together.

A couple of years ago, María received a Facebook Friend Request from David. At first, communication between them was brief.

They exchanged a few comments on each other’s walls, but nothing much beyond that until David left a quick comment of condolence for María after the death of a family member she mentioned. That comment turned into a long conversation and lead to a lot of reminiscing on María’s wall. That sparked other conversations, which lead to a poke here and there, then they sent smiles to each other and even  left notes for each other in the game Farmville. Eventually, that lead to private chats, long private messages and the start of some innocent online flirting.

 As they continued to communicate, a romance started to blossom but there was one problem. María and David had yet to see each other in person. David lived in Jemez Springs and María in Santa Fe.

On Columbus Day, 2009, they met for the first time after twenty-some years. They immediately felt comfortable with each other, like they were old friends and the attraction was obvious. They started dating and fell in love. David proposed June 12, 2010 after a romantic weekend in Jemez Springs. On Feb. 12, they will marry at the Santa María de la Paz Catholic Community.

So what started out as a simple friend request on Facebook blossomed into love and marriage.

They will make their home in Santa Fe. David works at LANL and María works in real estate and continues to write the stories her characters tell her to write. She’s still hoping to publish a novel one day.