How to Reboot Your PD

Love in the Lunch Room

Sometimes cupid strikes when you least expect it—a long glance over the fi nal countdown of the microwave in the lounge, a quick chat at a meeting that turns into something more, the moment you realize you both are eating peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches for lunch. Those love in the lunchroom moments were very real for these cupid-stuck couples who shared their MEA love stories with us this Valentine’s Day.

Jamie & Dave Ela MSAD #74

Jamie and Dave Ela bring new meaning to the words union meeting. It was at a priority schools local association meeting at Carrabec High School where, over Chicken Divan, MEA UniServ Director Rose Mahoney suspected there was love in the air. The newlywed couple, just married this past August, admits they kept their relationship a secret for about a month but there was just something about the way they communicated that tipped off MEA’s UD, turned love detective that fateful night.

“He was smiling like a fool (you can say from ear-to-ear) and was practically falling over himself to be near her. It wasn't hard to pick up on,” said Rose.

While the secret romance didn’t last long, their relationship seemed inevitable. Jamie and Dave both attended the same high school, he was a senior, she a freshman. At the time, their lives didn’t cross paths but all these years later, it was kismet when Jamie took a teaching job in MSAD 74, the same district where they once walked the halls together as teenagers. The couple can now easily say they knew they were meant to be together, forever. “I realized Dave was the one when I had stopped trying to play matchmaker with any of my single friends,” said Jamie. For Dave, the “a-ha” moment about his now wife was just as obvious. “When Jamie saw my messy apartment and didn't immediately leave, I knew,” said Dave. And who knows…maybe it was their love of cream of mushroom soup in the Chicken Divan that pushed things over the edge.