14.02.2017 Views

MSN_021517

Malibu Surfside News 021617

Malibu Surfside News 021617

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

malibusurfsidenews.com News<br />

Malibu surfside news | February 15, 2017 | 5<br />

High school sweethearts make the Surfside swoon<br />

How We Met contest<br />

winners earn gift<br />

certificate to Kristy’s<br />

Lauren Coughlin, Editor<br />

Love cannot be measured,<br />

but it most certainly<br />

can be felt.<br />

While the Surfside News<br />

does happen to be partial to<br />

the written word, the competition<br />

in our How We Met<br />

contest was tough and presented<br />

a difficult task: trying<br />

to define love.<br />

Malibu resident Nanci<br />

Iannone’s entry had it all,<br />

with a tale of young, forbidden<br />

love that proved to be<br />

strong enough to withstand<br />

two-and-a-half decades<br />

apart. The couple will receive<br />

a $150 gift certificate<br />

to Kristy’s Village Café,<br />

30745 Pacific Coast Highway,<br />

Building B, Malibu.<br />

To read all of the How<br />

We Met entries in full, visit<br />

MalibuSurfsideNews.com.<br />

Following is the winning<br />

entry, penned by Malibu<br />

resident Nanci Iannone:<br />

It was that WHOOMP<br />

kind of love that you really<br />

only feel when you’re<br />

15. A big hug of your heart<br />

that fills you up starting in<br />

your toes, working its way<br />

through you until your<br />

cheeks are warm and you<br />

can’t stop smiling. When<br />

your mother says you can’t<br />

see him Saturday night,<br />

you sort of can’t breathe.<br />

Watching him talk to that<br />

pretty girl in his class<br />

makes your head spin. But<br />

just sitting next to him on<br />

the bus might be the best<br />

thing that’s ever happened<br />

in your whole life. Yeah – it<br />

was like that.<br />

But it wasn’t just Saturday<br />

nights my mom (and<br />

HIS!) were worried about.<br />

We were spending (oh,<br />

no!) “ … too much time<br />

together!” and (oops) “ …<br />

this is why your grades are<br />

falling.”<br />

We were restricted to<br />

seeing each other only at<br />

school. There was some<br />

sneaking around behind the<br />

moms’ backs, but I wasn’t<br />

very good at it, so that was<br />

quickly squelched. He’d<br />

call the house and my mom<br />

would tell him I was unavailable.<br />

We had friends<br />

act as beards for us, asking<br />

my mom if I could spend<br />

the night at their house to<br />

help them “study.” It was<br />

pretty brutal.<br />

But, as with all great<br />

romances, our love occasionally<br />

found a way. He<br />

would take two busses in<br />

the snowy, frigid New York<br />

night to tape a love note<br />

to the door he knew I’d be<br />

the one to open first in the<br />

morning. He’d sneak the<br />

key to his dad’s boat so that<br />

we’d have a place to meet<br />

where no one would think<br />

to look for us.<br />

But the power of two Italian<br />

mothers hellbent on getting<br />

their firstborns safely<br />

off to college was too much<br />

for us. In the summer following<br />

our senior year of<br />

high school, we broke up. It<br />

was exhausting maintaining<br />

the cloak and dagger and<br />

even we knew that we were<br />

too old to “run away.”<br />

I moved to California to<br />

forge my independence and<br />

he began classes at a college<br />

back east. It was my<br />

first experience with real<br />

emotional loss and it took<br />

a long time to stop thinking<br />

about him every day. But<br />

every once in a while …<br />

ABOVE: Pictured are yearbook photos for Nanci and<br />

John Iannone, who grew up in Bronx, New York.<br />

RIGHT: High school sweethearts Nanci Iannone, 60,<br />

and John Iannone, 61, of Malibu, have been married for<br />

10 years following a fateful run-in at their class’ 25th<br />

reunion. Photos Submitted<br />

Twenty five (!) years later,<br />

a high school girlfriend<br />

found me on AOL (“You’ve<br />

got MAIL!”). Evidently,<br />

my name had fallen off the<br />

alumni list when I came<br />

out west but they’d found<br />

me now and invited me to<br />

our class’ 25th reunion. By<br />

the end of the conversation<br />

I’d managed to sneak in,<br />

“Does anyone know what<br />

ever happened to John?”<br />

and was gobsmacked to<br />

hear that he’d attended every<br />

reunion since our first,<br />

always casually asking the<br />

same question about me.<br />

Could it be?<br />

We’re now married 10<br />

years, blissfully ensconced<br />

here in the most beautiful<br />

place on earth, with a cat in<br />

the yard and a purple motorcycle<br />

for the canyons,<br />

and every anniversary we<br />

look up to the skies and<br />

thank those two moms who<br />

were wise enough to know<br />

that all good things really<br />

do come to those who wait.<br />

New Preschool in Malibu!<br />

Parent Info Sessions for<br />

Seaside Preschool<br />

March 1st at 9 am<br />

Visit: www.cabrillo.smmusd.org or call 310.457.0360<br />

for enrollment information<br />

Juan Cabrillo Elementary School<br />

SMMUSD-<br />

Aligned<br />

Opening Fall 2017<br />

30237 Morning View Drive, Malibu<br />

STEAM-<br />

Enhanced<br />

Reggio-<br />

Inspired

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!