(Austin, Texas)
Gallery & story.
Lady Bird Lake, the day we got engaged.
Although they were both Tulane graduates, Mary and Hunter somehow spent years orbiting the same city without ever crossing paths. Four years apart in school meant their timelines never quite aligned. It wasn't until Hunter returned home to New Orleans after living in Charleston, while Mary was beginning medical school at LSU, that fate (and Hinge) finally introduced them.
Their first date was at a quiet rooftop bar overlooking downtown New Orleans. What was supposed to be a casual cocktail turned into an unexpectedly spirited debate about health technology. Mary had half expected the former baseball player to be all charm and very little conversation. She was happily proven wrong.
The second date was spent watching the Saints on a Sunday afternoon. The third was Hurricane Ida.
As the city shut down around them, they hunkered down together, surviving three sweltering days without electricity, air conditioning, running water, or functioning elevators, climbing twenty-eight flights of stairs more times than either cares to remember. Eventually, armed with one final heroic application of deodorant and very little dignity, they evacuated to Austin, where Mary's family welcomed them with open arms despite the fact that they looked (and smelled) as though they'd been living on another planet.
It turned out to be an unusually efficient way to get to know someone. Meet the family? Check. See each other at absolute rock bottom? Check. Swap childhood stories? Check. If there was ever going to be a fast-track version of falling in love, Hurricane Ida was it.
In the years that followed, life continued to hand them equal parts adventure and uncertainty. They adopted their beloved Rhodesian Ridgeback, Obi. Hunter built a roofing company from the ground up. Mary graduated from medical school, matched into emergency medicine residency, and the two made Austin home.
Somewhere between hospital shifts, business deadlines, and the ordinary rhythm of everyday life, an evening ritual quietly became long walks with Obi along Lady Bird Lake as the sun disappeared behind the skyline.
On July 18, during one of those familiar walks, Hunter stopped beside the water and asked Mary to spend forever with him.
The easiest answer either of them has ever given.
