Our Story: July 26, 2002

It was July 26, 2002 and both Elena and I, from our separate directions, descended upon Rome to begin their time at the Adriatic Chamber Music Festival's 5th summer edition. I am a co-founder of the festival, and as every year, the festival begins in the eternal city of Rome before heading to the eastern Adriatic coast and to the town of Bonefro where the festival resides until the middle of August.

Elena and her mother had arrived in Rome early in the morning from Hannover and hadn't slept much that night on the train. After arriving in Rome, they met with Antonio Artese, the director of the festival, at the small Latteria across the street from the hotel where the festival resided, just off of St. Peter's Square and the Vatican. I was sound asleep in his hotel room after a late night of carousing around Rome with other festival faculty. Sound asleep, I was broken from my slumber with a phone call from Antonio, asking me to serve as a translator to help converse with the German/Ukranian student that had just arrived. So out of bed I rolled and walked across the street to the Latteria (after putting on clothes first, of course...) where Antonio and "this student" was. Had I known that I was about to meet my future wife and the person I would spend the rest of my life with, I might have groomed myself a bit better, such as combing my hair and taking a shower. So Elena, looking great for someone who had spent all night on the train with her mother, met me for the first time. I can't say it was love at first site, especially when concentrating on translating German to English at an early time in the morning, but there was certainly a strong curiosity.

It was about a week before I finally got the courage to make my move, but I have to say it wasn't easy with Elena's mother there watching my every move. I would normally have passed on making a move with a Russian mother looking over my every move, but Tetyana (Elena's mother) had a strong tendency to disappear at the just the right moments. Even though Tetyana and me could not speak a word to each other, with her not knowing German and English and me lacking Russian, words were not needed to give me the hint that she didn't have a problem with me wooing her daughter.

Under normal circumstances, the beginning of our relationship may have progressed at a steadier and more even progression of time. But at a music festival with many of my best friends and me living in the convent in Bonefro, life there is similar to living under a microscope, with time having a whole different meaning there. It was this that I think helped strengthen our fledgling relationship by the time the festival ended in the middle of August and we went our separate ways, with Elena living in the northern part of Germany and me in the south of Germany. After six months of visiting each other in our different locales, we decided to move in together at the beginning of 2003.

What the chances were of us meeting that summer, I don't know for sure. But we met in a place twice removed from our original points of origin. Daniel was living in Munich in the summer of 2002 and had originally come from the Bay Area in California. Elena, living in Muenster, Germany at the time we met, had originally come from Odessa. So both of us travelled a long distance over a long period of time before finally meeting in the eternal city of Rome. I believe that it may have been fate, even though I am not one to read too deeply into things like that. But we are now very happy and can't wait for us to be married.