Motherly -- and grandmotherly -- intuition mixed with a bit of divine intervention proved to be the formula for love for Sarah Wicklein and Russ Bowman.
In fact, Russ had an early inkling about the outcome of their relationship. His grandmother, Addie Jewell, told Russ long ago that he would meet his wife in church.
Church has always been a second home to Sarah, daughter of a minister -- and a "preacher's kid" if there ever was one, she admits with a mischievous giggle.
In the spring of 1996, her father, the Rev. Jarrett T. Wicklein, became pastor of Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church in Baltimore. That autumn, Russ, an operations officer in the U.S. Coast Guard, was transferred to Baltimore and began attending services at Mount Vernon Place. The lifelong singer and former drummer in the Coast Guard Academy's Jazz Band joined the church choir and soon found himself under the wing of the minister's wife, Pamela Wicklein.
Struck by Russ' kind and respectful manner as well as his outgoing personality, Pamela immediately sensed she had met the right man for Sarah. Like all good mothers, Pamela says with a laugh, she didn't hesitate to tell her daughter.
Busy with law school at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and involved in another relationship, Sarah ignored the predictions. But privately, Sarah wondered if her mom's intuition was right. Pamela was already 1-for-1 as the family match- maker, having brought together the Wickleins' older daughter, Abbi, and her husband, Scott Bayne.
Sarah and Russ didn't often cross paths. But in December 1996, they ended up in the same "membership class" as each officially joined the Mount Vernon Place church. Nearly two months later, the couple -- who had become better acquainted -- went on their first date. Sarah realized that evening, she says, that her mother was right. "Russ did all these gentlemanly things that no one had ever done for me before," Sarah says.
Within a week of their dinner date, she and Russ had privately declared their love for one another. "There's a connection that we have that I had never enjoyed before," Russ says, smiling at Sarah.
In May 1997, Russ presented Sarah with a promise ring. Later that year, in July, he introduced her to his parents, James and Claudia Bowman of Southlake, Texas. The couple even went shopping for wedding bands on Christmas Eve of that year.
But Russ didn't propose until March 1998. With some musical help from the Coast Guard Academy's Jazz Band, Russ serenaded Sarah during a concert at the Mount Vernon Place church. Sarah's sister, Abbi, and Russ' sister, Julie, sat beside her as Russ began singing one of his favorite songs, a Dixie-land number, "Great Big Date With a Little Bitty Girl I Love."
Russ personalized some of the lyrics, adding lines like "Her father's pious, he runs this church." But Sarah didn't see where the song was leading until Russ got down on one knee in the aisle and asked her to marry him. As congregation members and concert-goers applauded, a tearful Sarah said yes.
On March 20, nearly a year after that proposal, Sarah, 24, and Russ, 25, were wed at the church. Sarah's father walked her down the aisle to a waiting Russ and then took his place at the pulpit to perform the ceremony. His homily was built upon the gift he presented to Sarah and Russ during the service: a plaque bearing symbols of Celtic and Christian traditions that he made to commemorate their marriage. The center of the plaque is a Celtic knot symbolizing Sarah and Russ' relationship as one that, like the knot, has no end.
Sarah and Russ left the church under an archway of swords provided by Russ' Coast Guard friends. As the husband and wife made their way down the church steps, the band began to play and Dixieland filled the air. Traffic came to a halt as the bride and groom -- followed by 175 guests carrying sparklers and tooting small horns -- promenaded across the street to the reception at the Engineering Society of Baltimore in the Garrett-Jacobs Mansion.
Sarah and Russ expect to remain in Baltimore for the next few years. He now works in safety and security at the Port of Baltimore. Sarah is in her last year of law school.
As for Pamela Wicklein, well, she's 2-for-2. ("Luckily, there are no more children to marry off, so she can keep her perfect record," quips Sarah.)
As for Russ' grandmother, who was among the guests at the nuptials: Let's just say everybody who's seen Sarah and Russ together firmly believes in the accuracy of Addie Jewell's prophetic powers.
Pub Date: 03/28/99