Jerry's Account:

Katarina had just arrived.

Shortly before midnight, the passenger plane touched down on this breezy Vienna night.

A blanket of woolish clouds covered the Central European capital and the scent of summer hung in the air. She stepped off the plane and gradually made her way to her temporary home before gently falling asleep.

Awaking to the following morning, Katarina attended CityKirche, a local church lead by longtime family friends, Christian and Helen Hofreiter. After service, Viji from Hawaii struck up a conversation with Katarina and given the topics at play, calls Jerry on over to join.

The first meeting of Katarina and Jerry in the back of Café Caspar, a downtown Vienna café that hosts CityKirche in the summer month of July, was already charged with magic.

Conversation was easy and proceeded at a fast clip. Continental philosophers such as Schopenhauer, Nietzsche or the Vienna-born Martin Buber were mentioned and some of their thought sketched out and interpreted in light of biblical teaching.

Interaction was, in fact, so thoroughly delightful that Jerry exchanged contact information with Katarina and offered her a tour of the Old City—an offer she readily took up the following Saturday.

The days between church and the city tour included some messaging and mentions of common interests such as IWM, a local think tank, and poetry of the great George Herbert, Gerard Manley Hopkins, or the Nobel prize laureate Seamus Heaney.

Saturday morning, Jerry and Katarina finally met for their joint tour at the downtown landmark Stephan’s Cathedral.

Katarina was arrayed in her usual joyful way and Jerry was thrilled to show her around.

After a cheerful greeting, they made a full circle around the cathedral, taking in its many artfully designed depictions of the biblical text published on the outside of its thick sandstone walls while relishing in vibrant conversation.

Following the tiny Jasomirgottstraße to Peterskirche and around to the Wollzeile they turned onto the Ring, passing imposing statues of greats such as Schubert, Lehár or Göthe.

After a visit to the palace library, Katarina mentioned that she would enjoy a nibble at one of the street food offers nearby. Jerry, having successively realized his good fortune, decided to make it a special event, and suggested a prize-winning Italian diner, Trattoria Martinelli, minutes away.

Delicious cuisine in a quiet, freshly gardened courtyard setting provided just the right environment for Katarina and Jerry to continue getting to know each other and moment by moment increasingly fall in love.

From that day on, not a day went by when they didn’t spend time together. Despite Katarina’s work schedule, which had to take the 7-hour time difference into account, time was found, and conversation continued into the wee hours of the night.

Only a few days later, surrounded by tall five-century-old horse chestnut trees, the conversation halted as they turned to each other and, for the first time, kissed.

The unavoidable day of departure arrived as Katarina’s four-week-long remote work time window drew to a close. Teary-eyed kisses and embraces at Vienna airport accompanied the send-off. The only ray of light, piercing the momentary sadness, was Jerry’s scheduled visit to Texas.

A few weeks later the long-sought reunion took place in Dallas, and Jerry had the opportunity to meet Katarina’s beautiful family, go jogging with her along Trinity River, and visit many places of special significance. The joint flight back to Austria via Paris gave them some more weeks together and with Jerry’s mom before, due to visa limitations, Katarina had to leave the country again.

After weekend reunions in the capital cities of Ireland and Scotland, Turkey was next in line.

A dinner at Istanbul’s lavish Çırağan Palace overlooking the Bosphorus River provided just the right backdrop for Jerry to invite Katarina out onto the opulent moonlight terrace, go down on his knee, and pop the question to which Katarina responded with the delightful words, “Yes, a thousand times, yes!”

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