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Relationships
True Romance: Childhood neighbors prepare to tie the knot
11:02 AM CDT on Friday, March 14, 2008
When Suzanne Hamala met Donald White, she didn't much care for him.
That's probably because she was 4, and, like most girls her age, she hated boys.
"I wanted nothing to do with him," says Suzanne, 24, recalling her childhood in Cedar Hill.
The White home was directly behind hers, and they spent lots of days playing outdoors with the rest of the neighborhood kids.
Even when Donald did tricks on his bike such as riding on the handlebars, she paid little attention.
"His friends would say, 'Look, he's showing off for you,' " she recalls with a laugh.
As for Donald – or "the Donald," as neighborhood kids called him – he wanted Suzanne to like him, if only for the perks he thought he would receive.
"I remember that they had a pool," says Donald, 26.
"I grew up with two boys the same age as me next door, and we kind of terrorized the neighborhood. We always wanted to swim in [the Hamalas'] pool. But no matter how hard we tried, we couldn't get invited."
As they grew up, Suzanne and Donald attended Cedar Hill High School but were in different grades. By that time, Suzanne had begun to warm up to her neighbor.
"We'd say hi to each other in school," she says. "I always thought he was really cute – at a certain age. I didn't when I was 7!"
What a difference a decade makes. In 2004, when both were in college (he was at Midwestern State; she was at Texas A&M), they went on a date during summer break.
"She'd recently ended a long relationship," Donald says. But after the date, "neither one of us pursued each other, so I thought it was over."
Suzanne returned to Texas A&M in the fall.
The next summer, Donald visited his parents again. One day, as he sat on the tailgate of his truck, he got a phone call from a buddy who was stationed overseas with the Marines.
The two talked, just catching up, until Donald became distracted.
"'Man, there's a good-looking girl coming down the street,' " he recalls saying.
"She was a quarter-mile away, and I thought, 'Look at this pretty girl running.' "
Then the pretty girl started waving at him.
"I said, 'I've got to let you go,' " he recalls with a laugh. After he hung up, he and Suzanne got reacquainted.
"I found out she'd been single for a year, and so was I," he says.
"I said, 'It's ridiculous that we'll be spending the summer across the street from each other. We should hang out.' "
So they did, as friends at first. "That lasted two months," Donald says. "Then, I asked her if she would be mine."
What did they see in each other?
"I remember telling my mom that he's always happy, always smiling, and it's contagious," Suzanne says. "You always want to be around him. He's very full of life and energy."
"She's the same way," Donald says, mentioning her volunteer work for Project Sunshine, a nonprofit group that supports children with medical needs. "I love how she's willing to give away her time. I've never been in contact with somebody that was so loving."
Before they could be together full time, Suzanne had to finish college, which included four months of study in Barcelona, Spain. Donald visited her in Europe and did other things to make the long-distance relationship work.
Back at Texas A&M, for example, he'd work on small projects when he came to visit. Once, he built her a picture frame.
"He's very thoughtful," Suzanne says. "Not just with me, but with everybody."
In 2007, they both found jobs in the Dallas area. She is in sales at Fossil West, while he is a senior technician for Real Page.
On July 22, her birthday, Donald planned something special.
"I got off work on Friday and he told me to pack my bags," she says. "Then he took me right down the street to the W Hotel." After dinner at Nove Italiano, he proposed.
The two plan to wed May 3 at First United Methodist Church in Cedar Hill.
How do their parents feel about the upcoming union?
"They love it!" Donald says. The proximity of the in-laws also will make it easy for the couple to visit.
Donald and Suzanne, who will live in Plano, feel that everything worked out as it was supposed to.
"I grew up in a single-parent home, and she was a teacher," Suzanne says of her mom. "At one point, we looked at houses because we were going to move out of the neighborhood. If we had, [Don and I] may not have gotten married. But Don swears that, yes, we would have."
Unlike most young couples, they already have years of shared memories.
"We always look at each other and go, 'I can't believe we're here together,' " Suzanne says. "He was right in my back yard the whole time."
Darla Atlas is a Fort Worth freelance writer. If you have a True Romance story, e-mail her at darlajatlas@yahoo.com.
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