Ep 34: LOVE IN AMERICA: A Fateful Trip Leads To A Lifetime Of Love
From a chance meeting at a skiing resort to an engagement that featured the children’s character “Barney” down on one knee, Dr. Hunter and Stacy Newsom of Newsom Eye & Laser Center sit down with Sarina Fazan to talk about how fate led them to one other in this installment of the “Love in America” series.
Hunter and Stacy first met on New Years' Eve when they were in their mid-20s, while snow skiing on Aspen Mountain in Colorado.
“We had mutual friends, but we had never met before,” says Stacy.
They first interacted at a sports bar in the resort, and Stacy kindly invited Hunter, as well as his group of friends, to go skiing the next morning. Although this was the start of a destined love story, this interaction did not yet yield sparks.
“The first time we met didn’t do it,” says Hunter playfully.
“It was more like I have a group of girls; you have a group of boys. Let’s just meet up and ski together,” Stacy adds.
But, the next morning, Stacy and her friends were late to their planned date, which left Hunter and his group of friends nowhere to be found. Since this was before the cellphone, Stacy assumed Hunter and his friends did not show up, until she ran into him again later that same day.
“At lunchtime, I come out of the line with my tray of food and I see him, and I walk to him and I asked him, you stood me up. You weren’t there. He's like, you were late. I was like, I was five minutes late,” Stacy remembers. “Then he said if you hurry up and eat if you can keep up with me, you can come skiing with me.”
With their two groups of friends finally meeting up to ski together, their interest in each other began to grow. Since Stacy and Hunter were the two most experienced skiers, they were always the first to arrive at the bottom of the chair lift, giving them time to talk while waiting for their friends to come down.
“After a couple of runs of sitting there and waiting, we’re like let’s just leave everybody, so we went skiing by ourselves,” Stacy says.
She continues, while turning to Hunter, “And then you asked me to go out to dinner and you took me to this dinner called the Taco Tower and it had a magic show and the throwing darts to the ceiling.”
In fact, Hunter’s father had recommended this memorable place. He says, “I called my dad and was like hey I met this girl.”
Hunter continues, “He’s like there’s a restaurant called the tower where this magician will throw a card up and he’s got a knife and he’ll stick the knife hit the card, so when you look at the ceiling there are all these knives cards stuck up there.”
After their first date, they continued spending time together at the resort. However, reality set in after their vacation ended, leaving them to figure out how they were going to keep each other in their lives.
Hunter was in his fourth year of medical school at the University of Florida, and Stacy was in her last year at the University of South Florida in Tampa, earning her masters in epidemiology.
As a soon-to-be medical school graduate, Hunter already had a job position for his transitional year that was in Norfolk, Virginia. However, he was stuck between choosing where he wanted to stay with his original plan or going to Jacksonville where he could be closer to Stacy.
“After spending almost ten days or something, you fly back you come back. I said, you know what if I go to Norfolk, Virginia and she lives in Tampa, there’s no easy way to drive it’s just too far away,” Hunter explains.
He discovered that there was an open position at a Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, so he set out to apply.
“I call them up, and I said hey I’m interested in your position, and he said no you know we’re all full, we’re done,” Hunter says. “I said well let me send you my stuff, if you like it then maybe you want to interview me, if you don’t like it then it’s not meant to be.”
As fate would have it, Hunter received the offer to work in Jacksonville, allowing him to stay in Florida.
“I said, I’m going to go to Jacksonville the Mayo Clinic just to be three hours from her, that was probably 15 days in or something like that,” Hunter laughs.
The two of them add that they were both in relationships at the time, so his leap of faith was completely destined.
“I wasn’t even supposed to be on that trip, I actually took someone else’s seat on the plane,” Stacy says.
Now looking back, she says it was all meant to be, starting with Stacy’s boyfriend at the time who made plans with his friends leaving her free on the News Year’s holiday.
Stacy recalls, “A girlfriend of mine said there was somebody who canceled out yesterday, can you get on a plane tomorrow?”
Stacy was at the beginning of her relationship, but Hunter, on the other hand, had been in a relationship for quite some time.
“At the end of your medical school or end of the residency, one of two things happen,” says Hunter. “Either you kind of end up hooking up and getting married and you go off together or you kind of say you know what we’re going to kind of stick around until the very end and then we’re going to separate and go different ways.”
He did not have plans on continuing his relationship with his girlfriend because Stacy came into his life, changing it forever.
“It ended up working itself out, so you just leave the opportunity open and just see what happens,” Hunter says.
They took that leap of faith, which led them into a serious relationship. However, living together without a marriage commitment was not an option for the couple.
“My parents have been married for 55 years. My parents were big about you don’t move in with a boy. Very strict family,” Stacy explains.
Stacy also wanted to make sure that before changing her life for Hunter, she could first support herself.
“I was like, you know I want to make sure that I have a job, I want to make sure I graduate, I want to make sure I have opportunities,” Stacy states.
Going into the Mayo Clinic, Hunter was aware that he would soon have to go to Iowa to complete his eye surgery specialty in ophthalmology.
“I knew that going in there that one year later I would have to move to Iowa,” Hunter says.
He made sure to talk to her parents about marriage, and the proposal two months later was something unforgettable.
“It’s probably one of the most unique ways to get proposed to,” Stacy recalls.
It was Stacy’s nephew’s first birthday. Hunter was supposed to be in Rochester, New York, but instead, he had something else planned.
The birthday party featured a “Barney” character for entertainment. Stacy was not too impressed with him, which she relayed to her mother. Moments later, Barney told all the aunts to gets onstage.
Stacy says, “I ran up to the stage, and Barney sings, I love you, you love me, will you marry me?”
But then the party took a turn as the costumed character removed his head – and inside was Hunter!
“The kids are screaming. They’re crying. They’re running. Because the kids all see that obviously, see that it’s Barney. And Barney’s just tossed his head,” Stacy says. “I’m like what are you doing in a Barney suit? Why are you here? I’m so confused, and that’s how he proposed in front of a hundred kids as Barney!”
She had no idea, all while her parents were in on this proposal to remember. Hunter wanted to propose so that when he prepared to go to Iowa there was a commitment.
“It just the right thing to do,” Hunter says.
They never got around to getting an official ring for each other, because of their financial circumstances, and as time went on, they realized that they didn’t need one.
“People ask, where’s your ring and I’m like my husband and I don’t need a ring to show everybody that we're married,” Stacy explains.
Hunter says he would gladly buy her a ring now that they are in a better financial standing, but Stacy still feels that she does not need one.
“I think it means different things for different people, but for us, I don't think we need to have a symbol image to say I’m taken or he’s mine,” Stacy says.
Married now for 22 years, the couple has advice for those who are looking for love.
“You just have to know who’s that right person, and you’re lucky if you find that right person,” Hunter says.
“I also think it’s important to find someone that compliments you,” Stacy adds.
She continues, “We really fit well together like a puzzle, we also have the same goals, and respect each other.”
A fateful meeting led them to a long-lasting marriage and three incredible children in this American love story.
“We could talk to you guys for another half hour, so that means you going to have to come back on the podcast,” Sarina says excitedly.
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