In the fall of 2005, Grandview High School sweethearts Lindsey Henry and Patrick Rains broke up.
But then, around the holidays, they started talking again. Henry even gave Rains some concert tickets. Along with his e-mailed thanks, Rains casually tacked on another news item. “It said, ‘By the way, I joined the Army. I leave Jan. 17,”‘ Henry recalls. “I was just blown away.”
As soon as she heard the news, Henry’s mother told friends and family: “They’ll be married within the year.”
She was right.
The distance and potential danger changed everything. There was no time or energy for nitpicking. “We had definitely grown up since we split up,” says Henry, 21. “We didn’t fight over the small things – being apart was bad enough, let’s not pick fights over nothing.”
With his phone time limited to five minutes on Sundays, the couple kept in touch with traditional letters. Henry also made a few visits in 2006 to Fort Benning, Ga., where Rains, 20, trains as an Army Ranger.
A flood of emotions overwhelmed them following Henry’s first visit in March after Rains completed basic training. He proposed in May. The unpredictability of the Army’s Special Forces, however, wreaked havoc with wedding plans. Henry laughs, “We’ve sent out three sets of invitations in the last year.”
After two failed attempts, they married Thanksgiving weekend at Belmar Center in Lakewood. “This beautiful autumn evening inspires hopes for peace, beauty, strength and permanence,” officiant Maureen Thomson explained.
The bride, a student at Front Range Community College, took her last final Tuesday and now will join Rains in Georgia. He can be deployed at any time. “They’ll tell me, ‘Get your bags. You’re leaving on a plane right now,”‘ Rains explains. Lindsey “won’t know that I left until I’m actually in Iraq.”
Freelance journalist Roxanne Hawn welcomes suggestions for future Vows columns, denverpostvows@wispertel.net.
