Gwendolyn Brooke Whitney was born and raised in central Indiana with a brief few years in Tennesee during elementary and middle school. She returned to Terre Haute, Indiana  in seventh grade and graduated from Terre Haute North Vigo High School in 1997.  She attended Purdue University and received a bachelor's degree in psychology. Following Purdue, she moved to Chicago, Illinois where she attended graduate school at Midwestern University, met Michael, and became a Certified Physician's Assistant. (Yes, it's a job that not everyone has heard of so it's OK to wonder what she does all day...if interested in what a "PA" is, please click on the following URL.) www.aapa.org  She now works in general and vascular surgery for the Department of Veteran's Affairs as well as spending some time in a smalll emergency room in Illinois.

Mike and Brooke met in Chicago...or one of the suburbs of it anyway. Mike was playing softball on a city league and Brooke went with her friend Brandy (see wedding party for more information on Brandy) to see a couple of people that Brandy knew (Scott and Joe) who played on the team.

Mike recalls that he was playing 1st base that game, and noticed Brooke in the bleachers. He thought for sure she had to be a girlfirend of one of the men on the team, but after the game, when all the team members met to celebrate the victory or drown in the sorrows of defeat, Brooke didn't seem to be attached to anyone....So Mike walked over and started a conversation. They talked all night and exchanged phone numbers. Mike gave Brooke both his home and cell phone numbers. Little did she know, but it must have been love right then because Mike keeps his home number very private and frequently close friends do not even have that access.

Brooke recalls not much during the game because she was having too much fun with her friend Brandy, gossiping about whatever events had happened over the past week or so, but after the game when everyone was mingling, she remembers a man in a baseball hat with very handsome eyes coming over and starting up a conversation with her. They talked about all sorts of things like what they liked to do in Chicago and music and all the other "safe" questions people ask when they first meet someone. They exchanged phone numbers and as Brooke drove home that night she thought...he seems like a really great guy...but don't get too excited, you just met him.

They had been dating for about 3 and a half years...rings had been looked at...discussions had taken place...

Brooke came home from an extra shift at work one sunday morning and walked into the house to long stemmed red roses on the kitchen table. Some would say she should have known it then, but Brooke had planted rose bushes that summer and she had just cut the last roses for the season. Earlier that weekend, they had been talking about how Mike would have to buy her flowers again now that all the roses of the summer were gone. Upstairs there was a huge box wrapped with a huge bow. Mike came out all dressed up and told her to open it. Inside that box was another box and another box and another box and...well you get te idea. Mike had the ring in his pocket and proposed on one knee after Brooke had ripped through most of the boxes.

A good man to the core, Mike had asked Brooke's mother for her daughter's hand in marriage the day before.