How We Met
A Happy Story
Jacqueline Janssen & Mike Morrissey
JJ: I didn’t have a sad story, but
a happy one that got happier.
Business was good, friends were
fun and my son was doing well. I
had good health and a purpose,
and I’d traveled and been on my
own for decades. Okay, I’ll admit
that sometimes I could get the blues
along with friends over a glass of
wine. There was also just a nagging
thought when I was with my happily
married friends. I thought it would
be nice to have a date at some of
these nonprofit galas where I was
usually the only single woman, but
I still felt that I was fine. I think
they call all that, “kicking and
screaming.” I got a dating coach
and learned about OurTime, where
men look for women their own
age! Okay. I could do that. I meant
to put it up on New Year’s Day but
procrastinated and it went up on
January 2, 2014.
Mike: It’s a longer story than what I
will write here, but I put my profile
on OurTime on New Year’s Day,
2014. The next day I connected
with a woman whose profile said
she was “One Worthy Woman,”
looking for a man of character—and
I just decided to go for it. I was
working on a project on homeless
people with mental illness for the
National Alliance for Mental Health
(NAMI), so I guessed that would
qualify.
JJ: Mike had a website with his
photos and I learned that he had
co-founded Refugees International.
He also had traveled a lot according
to his photos.
Mike: I was just coming back from
Thailand and I gave her eight times
to meet. Finally she said, “I can’t
do it any of those times, but I have
one night I’m going to a meeting on
homelessness and I could cancel.” I
told her, “I’ll meet you there.”
JJ: Over coffee after the meeting
I knew I wanted to see more of
this man. He made me laugh and I
wanted to start a friendship. I loved
his dimples, his many stories, his
fearless life and his deep respect for
his past.
Mike: We were very comfortable
together—there was a familiarity.
Our lives had crossed many times:
we graduated from high school the
same year, across the country from
each other, and also, though at
different times, from UC Berkeley.
We had lived in many of the same
places, and had even raised our kids
(the same age) in Santa Cruz at the
same time.
JJ: He was a traveler, and was retired
(or as he likes to say, “doing what I
want to do, not what I have to do”),
but busy with projects. I would
learn later that we worked together
well as a team, and that our mutual
commitment to our clients would
make our business a success.
Fast forward to 2017:
JJ: We are writing this from Paris,
and we’ve been to almost all the
continents. Mike is very romantic,
and since I am from Hollywood,
I love fairy tales. While on a
bareboat sailing trip around the
Greek islands, he proposed to me
on the moonlit cay in Fiscardo, on
the island of Kefalonia, on the fall
equinox. We married in Ireland in
2015, in a place called Three Castle
Head, by a true druid priestess.
Mike: Yesterday we walked the
streets of Paris, which were closed
for the Paris Marathon. I videoed
Jacqueline meeting women in pink
who were rooting for the runners
and raising money for cancer
research through Courir Pour Elles
(Run for HER).
JJ: We now produce a weekly
TV series on nonprofit founders,
and Mike has turned his work on
homelessness into a series on how
people became homeless, how they
got out of it and who helped them.
We both had a purpose and we
turned that into our mutual life’s
work.
Mike: We have found balance in the
recognition of important work by
others and raising awareness of the
disenfranchised while enjoying our
life together. MAC
MARIN ARTS & CULTURE 23