It all started with a letter…

Teresa was sitting with her friends in junior hallway at Minnehaha Academy when a senior student walked over and said, “Someone was talking about you today in math class.” Unsure of who would be speaking about her in a senior math class, Teresa asked very casually, “who.” “Maurice Baynard!” and that wiped away any casual feelings Teresa may have had. “What!?” She immediately grabbed a sheet of paper, to this day unsure of what came over her, picked up a pen and wrote the cheesiest love letter she could think up. Teresa had seen Maurice in the hallway but he was a year above her, so she didn’t think he would have noticed her. With nothing to lose, Teresa started squeezing every corny pick-up line and heavy handed compliment onto the college-ruled page and then sent it off with the senior friend to his next class. Thinking little of it afterwards, her and her girlfriends got a big laugh out of it if nothing else. However, next period, Maurice had written back! To Teresa’s great surprise, he not only played along but he upped the ante on cheese and corn (including one of his signature poems).

These letters would go on for weeks - passed through mutual friends. Maurice’s friends would read Teresa’s letters out-loud in the cafeteria and help him craft his responses and Teresa’s friends would help her. Before long most of their friends, (and therefore, at the small school of only 150 per class, most of the upper class) was aware of the letters.

Teresa and Maurice still had never spoken verbally when the homecoming dance rolled around. Towards the end of the evening the music stopped and the DJ came over the mic, “This one goes out to Teresa from Maurice.” the “slow-dance song” Let Me Love You by Mario came over the speakers and the crowd parted way for Maurice to land in front of Teresa. The hockey and football team (deliverymen of some of their notes) started to rally the rest of the crowd into a circle and, at the behest of some very rowdy cheers, (“Kiss Kiss Kiss!”) Maurice kissed Teresa in front of the entire school before ever speaking a word to her.

In the months to follow they would go to Sadies, Snow Days and Prom together. They dated, in the very high-school way of dating while mostly only hanging out in groups. They broke up when Maurice went off to college. Got back together the next summer, only to break up again when Teresa left for college. They saw each other a handful of times throughout the next decade and had nearly lost all contact when…

A social media post from Jordan, Maurice’s oldest brother, inspired Teresa to slide into Maurice’s DM’s - after all that time - for a “catch up.”

Maurice and Teresa met up in their hometown for a drink. Teresa called her high-school best friend’s Abby and Sophia before the date giggling like 16 year olds about how it would either be the weirdest date ever or the best.

It was the best.

Teresa had secretly reserved a second restaurant location for the date to continue if it was going well. During their very long “catch up” Maurice revealed that he had always considered Teresa “The one that got away.” They connected as adults and realized they had so much in common then their past - talking that night maybe more then they had talked throughout the entirety of their high-school relationship. They would see each other nearly every weekend for a year following. Flying to meet each other where they could just to spend a few days together and talking on the phone each night.

After one year of dating they moved in together in Chicago. Their home, just across the street from the MCA, became their favorite place in the world.

On the 1st anniversary of living together, in their dining room (their favorite room in the house) Maurice asked Teresa to marry him by reading a letter he wrote her (it included one of his signature poems). Teresa said YES with no hesitation.