Our family has had a busy wedding season!

Two nieces, two nephews and me – yes, I tied the knot last weekend with my guy, Darin and I couldn’t be happier.

This guy and I met in 1986 when I was just 17 and I admit I was nursing a big crush.

He moved to my hometown for a summer job and immediately caught my eye.

I was shy at that age and admired this strapping young college guy from afar. When he moved back to his hometown to complete college I mailed him a card telling him that I valued the friendship we had begun which was my way of flirting back then.

We both moved on, got married, had families and the summer of 1986 became a distant memory as life carried on for us both.

One day I received a message in my in box asking if I remembered having lunch with him all those years ago and it resurrected the memory of this handsome guy who had swooped in and out of my world in a few short months. Both of us now divorced and me using my maiden name (you can find so many things out on facebook) enabled him to be brave and invite me for coffee and three years ago we met face to face after an almost 30-year absence.

When we started dating, it was like going home for me.

The feeling when you drive by your childhood home or when you go and visit granny in the place she has lived in ever since you were a child. Those fond memories or scents and sounds that can transport you back to a happy place in time are the ones which fill us with joy.

Although I don’t have a lifetime with this man, we have shared such similar life experiences it is like we have been living parallel lives for decades. The journey of discovery has been wonderful as we ‘compare notes’ and realize how closely our lives have come to touching.

Our children have met through mutual acquaintances and he had relatives who lived around the corner from me who he visited often. We lived in separate cities and never met but I believe our lives brushed past each other in many ways in preparation for this time together.

This guy has lived in the same area very near where he was born and raised, his country roots run deep and I knew that getting serious meant relocating for me!

I have since moved to be with him on his acreage and have found an untold peace in this country way of living.

From someone who has moved over 20 times in her life and has lived in everything from apartments to lofts to lakefront property to 100-year-old beauties – this is the place where I feel like home maybe should have been all along.

I am envious of the solid foundation that his household is built on backed by a long history of family and homestead values.

My simple, one child/one dog city lifestyle has been upgraded to four new adult children (complete with spouses and grandbabies), four dogs, seven horses and an abundance of beautiful wildlife.

Home has had many meanings for me over the years and now it is more meaningful than ever.

Kim Wyse is a Central Alberta freelance designer. Find her on facebook at ‘Kim Wyse Associate Royal Lepage Tamarack Trail Realty’.