Tim and I met when we were freshmen in college. We were part of the same service-based scholarship program. During our first week in the program, we had a pool party with some local children who rarely (if ever) got to go to a pool. Most of them didn’t know how to swim. But that didn’t mean that they weren’t ready to get wet!
That day, Tim saved a 5 or 6 year old boy who jumped into the deep end. When he jumped, his life vest came right off. The lifeguard on duty happened to be screening the shallow end at the moment it happened. You can imagine what a crazy/scary moment this was, but Tim was a complete sea of calm and just got into the pool in the blink of an eye and came back out with this child, who was scared, but ok. After he got the child back to his mother, he came right back over the the picnic table where he was before the incident, sat back down, and resumed eating his meal. He felt no need to re-hash the experience or in any way to brag. I remember saying to him, “Um, I think you just saved a little boy’s life.” His response was a simple shrug. His humility completely amazed me.
Tim and I often joke about what the moment was for each of us when we knew we had found our life partner. I have a thousand of those moments, but that was the very first one. I don’t remember specifically thinking, “I will marry this guy,” but I do remember thinking that I MUST get to know him. And so I did.
I have 12 years of stories about how amazing Tim is, and I’ll save some of those for another time. But what I want to say now is that Tim continues to amaze me with his grace under fire and his humble but life-saving gifts to me and Darah (for example: last night he got up with Darah no less than 7 times, and he’s going to work today). He is one of the most selfless people I know, and I’m so grateful to have him in my life.
