Love Story: They met in high school, but didn't date for decades

Mary Jane Sciascia talks about meeting and marrying former high school classmate Richard Sciascia.

Richard and I met in 1976 during our senior year in Lindenhurst High School. We were both 17, and my last name was Barry. We didn’t really know each other well back then. I was a gymnast and a cheerleader, and Richard was involved in taekwondo.

After graduation, Richard went to State Agricultural and Technical College at Farmingdale (now known as Farmingdale State College), and I went upstate to Sullivan County Community College for a year before moving with my parents to Northern California. I worked in Silicon Valley as a printed circuit-board designer. I ended up marrying and divorcing; I have three children. I stayed in Northern California until 2014 before moving to Virginia to be near my oldest daughter.

In 2006, Richard and I talked for only a few minutes at our 30th high school reunion, which was at what's now Jake's 58 in Islandia. In those few minutes he confessed he had wanted to ask me to our senior prom, but someone had talked him out of it. What he didn’t know was that no one ended up asking me to the prom.

In 2017 my daughter was looking for a new mortgage, and I remembered, from being in contact with Richard on Facebook, that he was a mortgage consultant. I called him, and we started talking. He told me he was going through a divorce and asked if I was going to the high school reunion at Venetian Shores in Lindenhurst. By the time the reunion rolled around, Richard and I had had several long phone conversations. We spent the reunion together and went on a date the next night to a local restaurant. We had an immediate connection.

Because I was still living in Virginia and Richard was in Lindenhurst, seeing each other was difficult. We spoke on the phone for hours every day. It was torture being apart. Fortunately, my company had a Manhattan location, and I transferred. In January 2018, I moved in with Richard. I have never felt safer in any relationship except for that with my father.

When you find someone you want to spend the rest of your life with, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible. On Feb. 8, 2019, Richard proposed. We were married Aug. 25, 2019, at The View in Oakdale. It was a very special day. We honeymooned for a week in Martha’s Vineyard, where we kayaked, rode a bicycle built for two and enjoyed romantic dinners. It was magical!

I recently changed jobs for a better work-life balance. I’m the showroom manager at Lakeville Industries in Nesconset, learning kitchen design. Richard is a home mortgage consultant at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage in Islandia. We volunteer for many charities including the Harry Chapin Food Bank and Wreaths Across America (placing Christmas wreaths on more than 400,000 graves at Arlington National Cemetery, where my dad is buried).

We finish each other’s sentences and know what the other is thinking. It’s amazing!

Richard is one of the kindest, funniest and most selfless men I’ve ever met. He thinks about everyone else first, treats me like a queen and tells me he loves me every day. He loves to cook, loves to eat and stays in great shape. For the first time in my life I can totally be myself. And I’m so fortunate to have a wonderful mother-in-law.

I hope this story is an inspiration for others to find true love.

— With Ann Donahue-Smukler