Karen and David first met in 1978 in Jackson MS. David worked with a girl named Cindy, whose husband Bill was trying to get a men's softball team together, and she invited him to a practice. Cindy played on a women's softball team, where several of the women were wives of the men on David's new team. So, naturally the two teams practiced together whenever possible. David went to a practice and on that first day met most of the players on both teams - including Karen.

Karen and David were both married to other people at that time, but neither of their spouses played ball. There was nothing but a good friendship between them at this time, and for many years to come. Everybody on both teams was close friends with everyone else, and there were a lot of reasons for get-togethers. The men's team entered many tournaments, playing in several before even winning a game. Losing a few games didn't mean they couldn't have parties though, and this group had plenty. Of course, when they started winning a few games the parties were no less frequent, and when they finally won their first tournament - that was probably a barn burner. The women's team entered their share of tournaments too, and was probably more successful than the men. All the more reason to have a party!

In 1981, David was transferred with his job to Pascagoula, on the Gulf Coast of MS. He was coming back to Jackson to visit his parents occasionally, and would try to schedule visits to coincide with the softball parties, but that faded out after a while. He wrote to Karen a few times, and she wrote back, but that slowed and eventually stopped also. However, they always kept in touch with each other on the phone three or four times a year, and often faxed each other jokes back and forth. They both found out later that they often thought about each other, but just never followed through on anything. After Karen was divorced, some girls from her softball team would come to the Coast for weekend trips and her girlfriends would encourage her to call David, but she never did. David divorced, married another, and divorced again, but never did call Karen on his weekends in Jackson.

In the summer of 1989 David was being transferred again, this time to Shreveport LA. On his way back through Jackson, he stopped at Karen's job and surprised her. He had not told her he was coming, and when he walked up to her desk and said "Hi" she just about passed out! It was the first time they had seen each other in years, but it seemed just like a few weeks. They hugged and talked and visited for a little while, but then David headed on back home to Pascagoula. The occasional call and fax continued, but in 1990 David accepted a new job with a different company in his home state of West Virginia.

In late May of 1993, a stupid joke changed both their lives forever. David called on a Thursday and left the joke on Karen's answering machine. Karen heard it later and called Friday and left a message on David's answering machine. Late on Friday night David came home, heard Karen's message, called her up, and they talked for hours. All the feelings that had always been pushed to the back of both their minds came to the front that night, and things were said that had been suppressed for years. I think David summed it up when he asked "Am I moving, or are you?".

From that night on, the AT&T Gods were very happy. They talked almost every day, sometimes more than once, for hours. Karen made plans to fly to WV, and arrived on July 4th weekend. Their first date was to go see "The Firm" at a theater downtown. The next night David proposed marriage, and Karen accepted. The small detail of those 800 miles didn't seem to matter then - that could be worked out later. Karen remarked later that West Virginia just seemed like "home" to her on that very first visit, and she did not want to leave. After a teary goodbye at the airport, they made plans to meet in a few weeks in Chattanooga TN.

Chattanooga is just about halfway between Huntington and Jackson, and made the perfect place to meet on weekends. Karen and David would both leave a little early from work on Friday afternoon, and would usually arrive at their destination within a few minutes of each other. They would visit the local sites, like the Tennessee Aquarium, Rock City, Lookout Mountain, and even attended a college football game between Marshall and UT-Chattanooga. One of these trips to Chattanooga is when they decided on the date they were to be married - May 21, 1994. Chattanooga will always hold a special place in both their hearts.