To the editor:

A year ago, at the age of 51, I was reunited with Maria Petti-Rozycki, a girl I was in grade school with at Hutchinson School. I was her first crush, but I moved away. Oddly enough, and truthfully, I often wondered what had happen to her over the years. Sadly, though, I couldn’t remember her name and had no one that I could think of to help me. I probably could have just went to her house, but who knew she was still there. Lol.

So last year, in June, she sent me a message on Facebook, and my eyes lit up. I knew it was her once I saw the name. I played it cool, like a fool, and responded two days later. We talked a lot the first few weeks, then I told her I was visiting New York in August and maybe we should get together. Maria offered to take me up to Lake George, a place I had never been. I was scared to death, but took her up on her offer. We met at the airport first, and once I saw her, my heart swelled up. I thought, “This is one beautiful woman dude. Don’t mess this up.”

Two days later, we went up to Lake George, and I had the best time I have had in years. I knew that day and night, in Lake George, I had found the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. A year later and I still cannot believe that the girl I knew from Pelham and went to school with would be the love of my life.

Love > Hate

John McClernan

3100 Catapults Court

Conway, South Carolina