LifeTimeline
Happy Anniversary, Steve & Amy!
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Amy and Steve meet for the first time
Washington, District of Columbia
STEVE'S VERSION OF EVENTS FIRST: I was 24 and working as an editor of The Washington Monthly. I volunteered to edit a story by a freelance writer named Amy Cunningham, about how the pro-pot group Norml had been making money helping drug kingpins. She was well established writer and sort of ancient -- 31 years old! So I found her incredibly exciting but frankly out of my league. I was a kid and quite skinny. But amazingly, after the piece was done, I mustered the courage to ask her to dinner. I actually still don't know what gave me the courage to do that.
AMY'S VIEW: Well, Steve seemed awfully smart, and kind, and sweet, gearing up to make a mark in the world--everything I would have wanted in a guy ten years older. And I remember what I was wearing for our first handshake--a hot pink suit. As we put the article together, the thought crossed my mind: "This dear fellow has a crush on me!" I was busy dating a conservative defense analyst, at the time. But that dinner at the Spaghetti Garden changed everything. I was smitten. "Honey, he's awfully nice. He's just too young to be husband material," my girlfriends told me. Little did I know I was launching into the greatest romance and partnership of my life (and a bit of a roller coaster for the first six years). -
Steve Proposes!
Washington, District of Columbia
AMY'S VERSION OF EVENTS: He was steadfast. At last, a generous, loving, brilliant, exciting boyfriend who freely admitted he was crazy about me. We worked and wrote side-by-side for years. We just couldn't decide whether or not we should marry. So we front-loaded the work, got into therapy and stayed in it for two years. Once we decided, we didn't look back.
STEVE'S VIEW: When it came time to prepare, I had an idea. I had saved the first note that Amy had sent me, which was actually an angry note from 1986 complaining that she hadn't been paid for her magazine piece telephone expenses. I had saved that for 6 years. I guess I knew it would be a significant document. So I wrote "Over for response" and put my marriage proposal on the other side.Martin Waldman
FROM STEVEN’S PARENTS
Steven had just phoned from Washington, and, in a puzzling conversation, asked us to meet him and Amy Cunningham at the cafeteria near the shuttle section of LaGuardia Airport in a few days. He gave us the time: midday, midweek. So we hung up the phone, looked at each other, and said “What was that all about?”
We (Steven’s parents) suspected something good was about to happen. We went to LaGuardia Airport at the appointed time, waited in the cafeteria, and eventually Steve and Amy appeared. They were on their way to another destination and were between planes. We chatted for a long time about unimportant things and then Marty finally said: “What’s up Steve? Get it out!”
Then they told us they were engaged to be married. It had been a long time coming. They were very happy, and so were we. We had met Amy before and loved her. A few days later, Amy sent us a letter telling us how much she loved Steve and Steve wrote to her parents. That’s how it all began! -
The Wedding
Upper Marlboro, Maryland
Amy Austine Cunningham was wed to Steven David Waldman at Mt. Airy Plantation, Upper Marlborough, MD, just outside Washington DC, October 21, 1991. For the purposes of the wedding invitation, the word "plantation" was deliberately omitted, an act which irritated Amy's conservative Republican father Austin, a man who took at least some pride in the history of the American South. All wounds were healed in the nick of time, however, and Austin happily walked Amy down the aisle (she was 36 years old and he'd almost given up on this ever happening). The service was beautifully co-officiated by a rabbi and a minister. The minister was also quite conveniently a psychotherapist, so we joked that all three of our religions were represented. -
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Move to Maple Street, Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn, New York
Since 2003 we've lived in a 1911 row house in Brooklyn. Here are some scenes of our very happy home (with lots of photographs of our dog Chester, who pretty much runs the place). Amy painted the lifts of the staircase the first summer both boys went to sleep-away camp. -
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