Marin Arts & Culture MAC_Oct_Nov_2017_final | Page 29

How We Met Jonathan and Anna Maria Cook Lindsay Brauner “Love Bus For Life,” read the bottom of the Sobe bottle cap that 20-year-old Jonathan Cook had just overturned. Sitting in the car next to him as he cracked open the drink was the love of his live – his wife, Anna Maria. That night, he’d been trying to convince her to go out with him on a party bus, so he thought the bottle cap was kind of a premonition. “See honey,” he grinned, “if you don’t go with me, you’re going to miss out on a lifetime of love.” Even with the aforementioned lifetime of love hanging in the balance, Anna Maria had turned him down, just like she had for the past six months. Because, okay, if you wanted to be technical about it, she wasn’t his wife – yet. However, to Jonathan, that didn’t matter much, because he’d known she was “the one” the moment they’d first spoken. Since that conversation, at a pet store where they’d both worked, she had become his sole focus, his motivation, his soulmate. It hardly bothered him that Anna Maria might not yet realize what he had so quickly known – that they would spend their lives together, experience the world side by side, co-found a business, and put their relationship ahead of everything else. One week later, they’d opened another bottle together, only to find the same message displayed on the cap. And four years later, that initial conversation replayed for both Jonathan and Anna Maria as they stood together on the top of the highest Mayan ruin on the coast of Mexico. This was the moment that Jonathan had known would come as soon as he’d spoken to her in the pet store. In that first talk, they’d discussed the difficulty of finding a true friend. They’d talked about struggling, and about caring for another human being. While one of them had immediately known that they would be together for the rest of their lives, both of them had known that they were speaking to someone who understood the other’s experience through their own incredibly similar story. At 15 years old, Jonathan had written a letter to the Marin County Superior Court, stating that he wanted to be the assigned caregiver for his disabled mother. He worked full time, drove her to doctor’s appointments. He paid her medical bills. He paid the rent for the two-bedroom apartment where he, his twin sister, and his mother lived after their father left. Throughout elementary school, Anna Maria had provided food and care for her bipolar mother – and for herself. When she got hungry, and there was no food at home, she hitchhiked to the food bank. In high school, Anna Maria became the caregiver for her maternal grandmother, who suffered from advanced Alzheimer’s. She, too, worked full time, supported her family, spend both days and nights at her grandmother’s side. A couple of years after Jonathan had proposed to Anna Maria atop the highest point in a storied ancient civilization, he met a highly successful startup founder who cautioned him against marriage. This man said that his prenuptial agreement had ruined his relationship, created division, impaired unity. As it happened, Jonathan and Anna Maria had been in no rush to get married, but after hearing the man’s story, Jonathan changed his mind. He rushed home and told Anna Maria that the prenuptial they had been working on was out, over, impossible. All he wanted was to marry her, as soon as possible. Within ten days, after three years of engagement, they were husband and wife. For Jonathan, hearing a cautionary tale about marriage from a man who had achieved nearly unmatched financial success marked a key understanding. Suddenly, their wedding venue, photographer, rings, catering and the guest list came together. Many expenses were unexpectedly comped. As soon as Jonathan realized that financial concerns were nothing compared to his love for Anna Maria, it seemed like the money he’d planned to spend was no longer needed. People gave to him, again and again. If you meet Jonathan and Anna Maria, they’ll probably invite you over to their house. You’ll meet their dog, Prince. You’ll hear about the people they are helping, the farmer’s market, the global issues they’re tackling through the compassion-based moving business that they’ve created together, Good Green Moving. You’ll hear them say, again and again, how much they love one another. And at some point, you might spot two small, round objects. They’re silver, a perfectly matched pair – two reminders, from several years ago, of what a grinning boy knew as he looked at the girl in his car who kept turning him down. They missed the party bus that night. But the love bus? They got seats for life. 29 Marin Arts & Culture