Susan did settle into rebuilding her life.  One thing about Susan, she was an extravert, quite uncommon for depressed adolescents.  Perhaps, this was not depression but multiple personality disorder.  Susan on the outside was a beautiful young lady.  She made friends with roommates, classmates, and got involved in campus activities.  During this third year of college she had to focus on core requirements, since she had completed most of the courses for her major or had proficiency to meet those requirements.  Susan met a nice guy, in her marketing class, Daniel.  She met another young lad, Joan, through some mutual friends.  They become good friends.  Near the end of the third year, Joan had wanted to introduce Susan to her older brother, attending grad school at Illinois.  She seemed amenable to the idea.  He wasn’t so sure. (This is where I come into the story, the older brother). 

      Mike (me) was studying both architecture and business administration and was going into his last year of grad school.  Mike did not date during college and had a physical disability, partial sight.  Although Mike was involved in many student organizations and held a prestigious job at the University, he was introverted.  Most of his sister’s friends were not good looking, and he was shallow in this regard.  But he agreed to meet his sister’s friend.  It would be a secret, he would come to the student union building, and pass by his sister’s table.  If he thought Susan was cute, he’d stop and introduce himself, if not he’d keep on going.  Well history was made that day, he found her to be beautiful.

      Their first date was Susan’s twenty-first birthday, a Wednesday night.  It was finals week and they both had light schedules.  Mike got food poisoning on the first date.  Susan helped nurse him back from his bout.  They agreed to go out again Friday to a party at Joan’s house on campus.  Susan drank a spiked punch, LSD.  Mike helped her though the bad trip.  After such a rocky start it was love at first sight for both of them.  School was ending.  Both Susan and Mike were staying for summer school.  Mike was leaving for a convention of the American Institute of Architects, where Mike was an associate editor for the national student’s newsletter and as part of his job for the university he was to recruit speakers.  He invited Susan to attend, separate rooms for men and women.  She went and was impressed by all of the famous architects that Mike knew. 

      After their return, Susan had to attend a family retreat on the Song of Norway, a cruise ship.  She took homework with her.  The captain thought he could seduce the young virgin.  She fought his advances and came back upset by the experience. 

      A few weeks later Mike invited Susan to attend a cousin’s wedding in Chicago.  It was a lot of fun for Susan and she saw how happy families can live.  At the wedding she met most of Mike’s cousins, aunts and uncles as well as his grandmother. In attendance was Cousin Dan, her friend from college.  The coincidences just reinforced her bonds to Mike.

      So how did we decide to marry?  Well it was mid June, just a month after meeting each other.  First Susan mentioned that her grandmother, Dorothy, wanted to come down to campus to meet this "nice young man you're going out with". I got a bit nervous and upset, I thought it was a bit soon for this. Then we were discussing our mutual beliefs, life goals, dreams, etc.  I was talking about raising our children.  Susan said "Is that a round-about way of proposing."  I thought about it and said "yes, I guess it is."  She accepted.

     We were going to surprise her parents on their twenty-fifth anniversary party. 

      Susan and Mike’s parents had not yet met.  Susan’s grandmother (her mom’s side) gave Mike a diamond for the ring, and Mike’s mom went with Susan, Mike and the grandmother to choose a setting. 

      Susan’s grandmother invited Mike’s parents to attend a private dinner with Susan’s parents on the actual anniversary day.  It was here that Mike and Susan announced their engagement to Susan’s parents.  A poem in a card to her parents.  Susan was quite a creative writer. 

      This dinner set the stage for much conflict in the coming years for Susan and Mike, but ultimately adding to Susan’s lack of self-esteem.  Mike’s parents did not drink at all.  They felt that Susan’s parents drank way too much and might be alcoholics.  The expressed this to Mike as well as their concern about Susan’s weight. 

Perhaps, Mike’s biggest fault was his honesty and openness with Susan.  Susan was very resentful of Mike’s mother, now she had a mother and a future mother in law that looked down on her. 

     Susan's second persona appeared now, the angry defensive person, who was determined to fight off suggestions that shew suffered any ailments or that her family had issues. Her third persona also began to form, a very deeply depressed Susan.  Thewse were not dominant in her life at this stage.

      The last year of college was busy planning a wedding, and Mike’s mom was constantly giving unasked for input at a time when the bride’s mother huddled these things.  His mom criticized the bridesmaid’s dresses, wanted too many invites, did not think that there should be an open bar, and on and on.  Susan continued to go into a deeper depression. 

      During the summer of 1976 Mike took a cross country trip for job interviewing. Although there were no direct offers, Dallas seemed promising.  Mike did get a job offer in Chicago.

      By the day before the wedding Susan was at a breaking point. She was ready to call off the wedding.  Mike was crushed and being the ever present optimist, he convinced Susan that their love would conquer this.  They decided that once married they would move out of town, as far away as they could go.  Another difficult decision for Susan, going to a place where she would have no friends and family.  This will be a reoccurring theme in their life. 

      On August 15, 1976 the two got married.  It should have been a story book life. Young love.