Anne & Scott Prahl
I knew I would marry Scott when I saw him teaching my first martial arts class. There he was: this skinny, science nerd in a cute white uniform. Frankly I was surprised that I didn’t have to fight for him. What I saw him then is the same stuff I love in him now, half a century later. He was constant, and strong, and kind of silly. But didn’t drift from one idea to another. He was old fashioned. He drove an old car, wore old clothes, and didn’t need to drop what he had for the newest, latest thing. Even when he surprised me his underlying goodness was always visible.
We floated right from our first date into “I’ve known you forever.” And in all these years, I have never worried that he was looking for anything else. We traveled together easily, choosing a life for ourselves and a city to live it in. I knew that once we landed. There we would stay.
We’ve been doing this for more than half our lives now. Our children have become the globe-trotting students that we used to be. And we have become their “home base,” a safe place to dust off between adventures.
While life has thrown its usual assortment of trials and tragedies our way, along with unexpected blessings, I have learned from Scott how to float easily in them and not be buffeted by them. That charming self-reliance and calm that made me first look across the room at him and smile is the very thing that makes my life so solid. My own tendencies to panic and over-react are always absorbed by that stability. I know that I can handle the unknown because I am already living everyday with the very, very known.
