By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
April 2, 2000
Dawn and Tim Szczur have their kids to thank for their marriage.
When Dawn’s daughter Abbi and Tim’s son Dave met on the Internet three years ago, they bonded almost immediately as friends. After about 1 1/2 years of corresponding, they talked their parents into meeting face to face.
“We lived in Ohio at the time,” remembers Dawn, 38. “Dave lived with his family in Chicago. Both Tim and I were going through divorces at the time, and the kids talked about this and plenty of other things.”
In April of 1999, Dawn planned a trip to Lake Villa to visit her sister. Abbi begged her to make a detour so she could meet Dave while they were in the area.
Tim, now 40, wasn’t in town for that meeting. So Dave was chaperoned by his aunt and uncle.
“I met my future sister- and brother-in-law before I met my future husband,” Dawn jokes.
“I remember being disappointed that Tim wasn’t there,” she says. “It wasn’t like I was in love with him or anything at that point, since we had never even met. But we had e-mailed occasionally about whether we were going to let the kids meet. I always enjoyed our little `talks.’ ”
When Dawn and Abbi went back home, the kids resumed their e-mail relationship, and Dawn and Tim followed suit. Their e-mails slowed down in May when Dawn had surgery on her elbow.
“It was difficult for me to type, so Tim began calling me,” she says. “We talked a lot about our kids and our exes, our jobs and hobbies. And the first time that I heard him laugh, I think somewhere in the back of my heart, I knew I loved him!”
Later that month, Tim suggested to Dave that he invite Abbi and her mom on an outing to Michigan to check out a NASCAR race and go camping.
“Even though I had met Dave and thought he was a great kid, I was a little reluctant at first,” Dawn says. “He was a stranger. Plus, I was like, `Ewwwwwwwwwww!‘ about going to the races. Of course, now I’m a big fan. But Abbi really wanted to go and I thought that it could be fun, so we went for it.
“We ended up having such a great time. In between the races, we talked and found out how much we had in common–weird things, like how we had both had heart attacks at young ages.”
The following week, Dawn and Tim had their first date without the children.
On Father’s Day 1999, he proposed to her. In September, they married and she moved to Chicago with Abbi.
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“He is just the most wonderful man,” Dawn says. “Just talking about him makes me cry.” (And she does.)
Over Christmas, Abbi, 17, and Dave, 16–who lives with his mother in Lansing–got pre-engaged.
“We’re like the Brady Bunch,” Dawn says, laughing. Except Greg and Marcia never dated.
“It was a little weird at first,” Dawn says. “They always said that they wanted [Tim and me] to get along, but they had never thought we would end up married. But we have fun with the situation. Last weekend, Dave and Abbi were walking hand in hand, and he leaned over and kissed her on the back of the neck. I said as a joke, `David, quit kissing your sister!’ ”
Abbi says, “When I met Dave online, I never imagined that we would end up dating or that our parents would end up married to each other. The most I had expected was to make a good friend. But I’m really happy that they’re happy.”
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