It was a flight to love, leaving Teterboro, New Jersey landing in Venice, Italy. It was a sleepless overnight flight and after our passengers had gotten off the plane, I was on all fours trying to buckle up a black bag that held a Tempur-Pedic mattress for one of the passenger beds. Drops of sweat were dripping down my face when I looked up to see a gorgeous man with striking features standing at the front door entrance. Suddenly, I was no longer tired and felt the rush of adrenaline looking at this amazing sight before my eyes. He quickly walked over and kneeled down to help me buckle the bag, as he saw I was struggling and introduced himself as Daniele, our handler (point of contact) at Universal Weather and Aviation. What a gentleman! I had been emailing with him previously regarding catering, but in my mind was thinking Daniele was a girl. Shame on me! Being 100 percent Italian, I should have realized Daniele in Italy is a guy’s name!
We chatted for a bit about our Italian heritage. I wanted to keep talking to him, but the pilots were growing restless to get back to the hotel. I laughed at myself after thinking of how I even whipped out my Italian work book from my back pack that I was studying to try to impress him or connect with him in some way, even though I already felt we had. When our eyes first locked looking at each other, a shiver ran through my body that was different from anything I had ever felt. It felt like I was just struck with a bolt of lightning! Even though I didn’t know this man, this feeling was real and that I knew.
When the trip ended, I thought I would never see him again. Then I smiled when I saw a trip scheduled the following month back to Venice again. Some call it luck, I call it destiny. We got in touch via email and Facebook before I left. He asked me to please bring him brownies as it was hard to find them in Italy. He also mentioned dinner if there was enough time. After a few dinners with him, me and the pilots, he asked to take me on a date alone to Treviso, a small quaint town near by. It had only been a week with this guy, but I didn’t want to leave him, it felt natural and right. We joked, we laughed, we talked and visited a church together, which made me happy knowing we were both in the same spiritual corner. We discovered we had a lot of the same interests in life. And it felt great being brought back to my Italian roots. I was born and raised in America, but with two parents both from Italy, so could relate to his life and the culture here without him having to say a word. I felt “at home” and had to fight back tears the day we departed.
Since then, we have not been able to stop talking. I tried once, thinking it might be too complicated with an ocean between us, but that didn’t last. We pursued a long distance relationship for a while before Daniele moved to the US to be with me. He is now my husband and we are happily living in CA together. So the message of this story is: Don’t listen to what people tell you when you are following your heart and your dreams. When it is your time, it is your time. No one or thing will get in the way of the path that is meant for you. If I had listened to people a long time ago telling me I would not get work in this business or I would not meet a guy traveling so much, I would have never seen and experienced all the amazing places I have been to and I would have never met my other half. Do what you feel is right. Chase your dreams. The rest will take care of itself.
