By R. Bryan Love
I have had a crush on Kim Wells since we met in 1980 as 8th graders when I was the new kid at Divisadero Junior High in Visalia, California. In High School she was voted Class Clown and I was voted Most School Spirited, so our pictures were close in the yearbook.
But she may as well have been on the cover of Vanity Fair, I was looking so far up at her.
Fast forward through a bunch of moves, marriages, children, and lifetimes. 27 years later, I see her in Rio Del Mar with her friend on vacation and the whole world spun upside down, sucked into the shape of an arrow, and shot through my heart.
“Uh-oh” is all I could think or say.
I became a complete fool in head-over-heels as, what you’d have to realistically call, a full-grown, middle-aged man.
Not just that she was more stunning and beautiful than ever before, but the connection was like a warm fuzzy lightning bolt of recognition, comfort and ever-present, everlasting la-la-la love-ey-ay.
And shortly after we kissed my question was, “do you think you’ll move up here or do you want me to move to Fresno?”
Fresno? That’s how crazy I was about this chick.
We merged (in 2013), then married (2017), and we’re still makin’ noise in Aptos now, a whirlwind ten years past that “uh-oh” moment in the Flats.
I love you more than ever Kimmy Dawn Love. You are the best woman, partner, friend and grandma anybody could ever even dream up!
You make our lives GREAT!