Their story began over two decades ago, thanks to a mutual friend who played matchmaker. Sidney said that friend led her to find her forever person.
“She started telling me that he wanted to meet me and telling him that I wanted to meet him. She was playing a total matchmaker. We were set up on a blind date, and it took,” Sidney said. “I like that George was interested right away and let me know.”
At the time, both were journalists—Sidney at the local newspaper and George at the TV station. George recalled that the moment he saw Sidney, he knew he had to pursue her.
“She’s cute. She was smart, and we just hit it off. We just started talking. I think we set together that like 45 minutes to an hour. At the end of the hour, I’m like, Will you go out with me next week? And she said, Yes,” George recalled.
That day marked the start of a year of dating, after which George popped the big question. Sidney admits she had a feeling something was up, but she definitely wasn’t expecting a proposal.
“We went to one of the steak houses in town, which was a really nice place to go, and I noticed that he didn’t eat his steak, which is so unlike him,” Sidney said. “We leave the restaurant, and there’s a limo. I was like, ‘What is happening?’ We got in the limo, and it started to drive. That’s when he pulled out a ring and proposed. It was it was very romantic.”
The limo took them to the Paramount, where George had a performance. Now, 21 years of marriage later, the couple works within a mile of each other, getting the chance to see each other in their professional element every week. Sidney says their professional dynamic works much better now, given their current careers, than it did in the past.
“The current job arrangement that we have now has been really great for the relationship, and we love being close to each other, and we’re both in the nonprofit arts world, so we know a lot of the same people, and it’s just really fun,” Sidney said.
George added that when they were both journalists, the conversations about work were different.
“We were both journalists, so we might be working on a story, and she might be working on a story, and we couldn’t tell each other what we were working on a lot of times because it was secret. So that was an interesting little kind of issue that we had,” George said.
Two decades, a golden retriever mix and a child later, the couple says the secret to keeping their marriage strong is communication — and the element of surprise.
“I think a lot of communication. Texting during the day, having lunch together, spending quality time going on dates,” Sidney said. “But all of those things, I think you just want to stay emotionally connected to your partner.”
“I think sometimes with marriage, like anything else, it can become a pattern, like, ‘okay, well, it’s Sunday, and we’re going to be doing this, and we’re going to chill out and watch TV today’ or whatnot. I think we do a good job of surprising ourselves, surprising each other,” George added.
This year, the couple will be celebrating 22 years of marriage.
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