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.
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Marin Arts & Culture