"How did you two meet?"

 Once again finding inspiration in another slicer's post! Thank you Carol Ann Clark (I think) at https://bloggedbutunspoken.wordpress.com/2023/03/18/meet-cute/comment-page-1/#comment-518.

People do ask us, "how did you two meet?" Appropriately, we met at a band rehearsal. It was a summer band in a suburb of Chicago. A friend asked me to fill in for her for two weeks while she went on a family vacation. He had been invited to play by another band member. I play (French) horn, he plays tuba, so he sat behind me in rehearsal.

I did not notice him until the break, when he came up to me and asked, "What kind of horn do you play?" Meaning the maker, not that it was a French horn. At that time I was playing an Alexander, which is a German-made horn. "I play an Alexander, too," he answered. Was it that coincidence that sealed our fate?

However, after my two weeks in the band, I did not see him again until December. It was (again, appropriately) at a reception at Orchestra Hall (downtown Chicago) after a brass concert. He came up to me and started a conversation. He asked if I gave horn lessons and I said yes. It turned out he was a school band director in the suburbs. He asked for my phone number so he could call and discuss my coming out to his school to give lessons (hmmmm). 

I was not surprised when he called a few days later and asked me out for coffee. The rest is history, still being written. Forty-three years, two kids, one grandson, and many, many rehearsals later we are still making music.