Cosmic Connections

Susan Scrupski
2 min readJun 27, 2023
Alex proposed to Katie at one of their favorite spots on Valentine’s Day, 2023.

My son Alex left Austin, TX to go to college at Champlain University in Burlington, VT. After about a year, a pretty blonde caught his eye. The young woman, Katie, was quiet, yet pensive. He’d often see her reading sitting on a bench or by herself at a table.

As romantic stories go, one day Katie was reading the famed romance novel, “Pride and Prejudice” on a campus bench, and Alex knew he had to talk to her. He came up with a spontaneous plan: he’d ask her to join his book club.*

The relationship progressed from there and, of course, they fell madly in love. Months after they started dating, they discovered something truly bizarre.

Katie’s Dad, Bob, grew up in Alex’s Mom’s hometown of Toms River, NJ. In fact, Alex was born in Toms River at the only hospital in town.

Very strange!

It turns out that Katie’s family, now living in Vermont, still has close ties to relatives in Toms River, and visits the Jersey shore every summer.

Katie’s Dad played football for the town’s champion football team and still sports his Varsity Letter proudly.

*Of course, Alex didn’t have a book club. When Katie said yes, he had to scramble all over campus getting people to join his book club and pretend it had been an ongoing event. :-)

--

--