David Andrew Ducharme was just walking his dog, as he had every day for the previous 8 years, when he caught my attention, and happily I caught his. This all happened in an idyllic setting on the Embarcadero of San Diego, next to the Hilton Hotel downtown.
Dave used to live in Bay Park; I lived in Clairemont (adjoining suburbs). I lived in Mission Hills, he lived in Mission Hills. In 2012 I did a stint of bicoastal life – half in NYC, half in San Diego. I’ll talk about that another day (super fun, great stories). But at the end of that year, I chose to come back to San Diego full time. Having had a great time in NYC, I thought that “urban” San Diego would be fitting – and rented a loft downtown in East Village. Dave, having lived in Mission Hills, which is lovely and close to downtown but quite family oriented, had also chosen to rent a loft in East Village too. We say it was Klaus that brought us together. That’s not really true, God brought us together, but Klaus the crazy Weimeraner was the instrument that God used. Dave walked Klaus for 3 miles each morning, at the same time, on the same path. I ran 5 miles every morning, at the same time, but in the opposite direction. Ta-da!! We crossed paths, we started smiling at each other, starting stopping to say hello, and the rest is history. Within a week of our first conversation Dave asked me out (gotta love a strong man who isn’t shy), and from that point on we were an item. There’s much more to it than that, and hopefully I’ll blog about my journey with Allison Armstrong’s company PAX, and how that contributed. But you have the end result and that’s what really matters!
Dave moved to San Diego 30 years ago in the military. He was a navy diver and bomb disposal guy. That’s all fine for me today, since what it really means is that nothing I can do can rattle him (if he can detonate bombs in Kuwait he can handle a little PMS, right?). So it’s all a plus in hindsight. My hat is off to military wives who have to handle deployments and all the stuff that goes with military life – honestly, I couldn’t do it, and so I’m glad Dave moved away from that many years ago.
For the past 20 years Dave has been a mortgage broker. He’s worked with a few different companies, and ridden the waves of the industry and the market. As we purchased our home, then refi’d our home, I swore that I didn’t know how he did it. All the nuances of the banks needs and the persnickety-ness involved, I would have given up ages ago.
Dave is Catholic. I became Catholic to marry him. It was important to me that my husband and I shared the same faith, and that we raised our children in a strong faith. While coming from a spirit-filled, non-denominational church to a catholic church was a huge change for me, I do love that we stand together in worship every Sunday, and we have no disconnect on how our child(ren) will be raised.
I know Dave is the man that God brought for me. That doesn’t mean that it’s all roses 100% of the time. He drives me crazy sometimes, I’m sure I drive him crazy a lot. But at the end of the day, he’s my best friend and we do life together. There’s no one else I’d want to be doing life with. He’s an amazing dad – Valentina has him quite wrapped around her little finger. He’s also a very smitten dad (putting together her radio Flyer wagon as I type this) and it’s so beautiful for me to see the love they have for each other.
