San Juan Bautista resident Cara Pierleoni didn’t follow the old
children’s rhyme
”
first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in
the baby carriage,
”
but wound up with it all in the end.
San Juan Bautista resident Cara Pierleoni didn’t follow the old children’s rhyme “first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage,” but wound up with it all in the end.
“I just didn’t go about things in the traditional order,” she said jokingly.
At 21-years-old, Pierleoni was pushing her way through college at California State University Humboldt, when she found out she was pregnant.
“It was very scary at first,” she said. “I had to go from only worrying about myself, to worrying about the life of someone else.”
She and longtime boyfriend, Donald Rassmussen, decided to leave Humboldt and move to San Juan Bautista to be closer to Pierleoni’s family. She and Rassmussen were “ridiculously in love,” so she got the first part of the rhyme right, Pierleoni said.
“We knew we wanted to be together and eventually we would be married, but things just happened a little out of order,” she said. “We were very lucky to have the support of our family and friends here in the area.”
After 14 months of working hard to save money, and taking care of her 14-month-old Kaiden, Pierleoni finally got the last piece of the rhyme. Last Sunday, on her 23rd birthday, Rassmussen had a surprise for her. While having dinner with family for her birthday, Rassmussen arrived a bit late with Kaiden dressed in a tuxedo and corsage. After reading a poem about their love, Rassmussen said “I’ll cook for you, I’ll clean for you, even give you a massage, but right now I need you to look behind Kaiden’s corsage.” Sure enough, there was the ring, and Pierleoni said she lost it.
“It was one of the happiest days of my life,” she said.
Now engaged, with a baby on her arm, Pierleoni has come a long way from her college partying days, and said in the past two years her priorities have completely changed.
“It’s funny,” she said. “In college I remember just waking up, taking a shower and the only worry on my mind was what I was going to do that day, and now it’s like my life revolves around my family.”
Next month, Pierleoni, Rassmussen and their son will move back to Humboldt and finish their education.
“We’re very sad to leave the area and all of our family and friends, but we’re at the point where we’re ready to go back and finish up,” she said. “I love this area though, and I know we’ll come back to visit a lot.
Christine Tognetti can be reached at 637-5566, ext. 330 or at
ct*******@fr***********.com
.
