Tales of true love Students share they have learned about love from their parents' love stories BY MICHAEL KRAFT From a concert to a birthday party to a jewelry store, BYU–Hawaii students reflected on tales of true love as they told the stories of how their parents met and married. A concert Kenedi Cooper, a junior from Utah majoring in cultural anthropology, shared how her father was a student athlete playing basketball for BYUH before he met Cooper’s mother. He suffered an injury, so he decided to take time off and go back home to Orem, Utah. Upon his return, he was called to be the Elder’s Quorum President of his Young Single Adult ward. Cooper said when her mother first saw him, he looked like a “typical surfer” with long hair and a tan. Cooper said her mother thought her father must really need this calling. Cooper’s mother, who was in the Relief Society, had her first interactions with Cooper’s father while they were planning a charity basketball game. Cooper’s father quickly noticed her and began asking his friends about her. The consensus from his friends was Cooper’s mother was “stuck up,” and they advised him not to pursue her. He ignored their advice. After their first date, which involved a day playing golf and dinner at Arby’s, their romance began. Several months later, Cooper’s father bought them tickets to see INXS, an Australian rock band. Cooper’s father bought her mother an INXS shirt, which she wore to the concert.
Cooper said her mother loved the concert, in large part because of the loud nature of the event. Every time she wanted to talk to Cooper’s father, he would have to pull her close so she could hear, explained Cooper. Cooper described how her mother spent the night looking for excuses to talk to him so he would have to pull her close. After the concert, Cooper’s parents walked around and looked at the stars. When her mother made a comment about the big dipper, her parents shared their first kiss. Cooper said her mother has always made jokes saying their first kiss was somewhat different from what she expected. After a few more months of dating, Cooper’s father brought up the subject of marriage. Cooper said her mother did not want to talk about it because she was 19 and felt too young. She said at the end of the conversation, her parents walked away with different ideas of what had just happened. Her mother walked away hoping if she ignored it and did not bring up marriage, it would go away. But her father walked away thinking she was ready and wanted to get married. This led him to go to Cooper’s mother’s workplace with a ring catalog and ask her to pick a ring. Cooper said her mother was not ready to commit, told him to go home, and told him she needed “way more time” to think about it. Upon hearing this, Cooper’s father decided he would drop the subject. He decided
if she did not bring the topic back up, he would not bring it up either and began making plans to return to Hawaii. Cooper’s mother, who had just turned 20, began weighing the pros and cons of going on a mission. After a couple weeks of uncertainty, Cooper said her mother decided she did not want to sacrifice her relationship with Cooper’s father. She told him she was ready to get married, but she said she did not want an engagement ring, only a wedding band. He proposed to her at a waterfall. However, he had purchased an engagement ring because he felt she should have one. Cooper said her father wanted her mother to have the best things in life, so he sacrificed to get her a ring. The engagement ring has been a symbol of their love for each other, said Cooper. When the recession hit in 2008, their family business suffered, and they struggled, she explained. To help pay their employees’ salaries, Cooper’s mother sold her engagement ring. “My parents have been through so many hardships throughout their marriage … But when you go through the hard times, you learn how to put the other person first, and that’s what marriage is about,” said Cooper.
Left to right: Kenedi Cooper's parents throughout the years of their marriage. Her parents kissed for the first time, she says, after taking a walk at night and looking at the Big Dipper star constellation. Photos provided by Kenedi Cooper. Graphics by Esther Insigne. 36
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