By Megan R.
Have you ever read a fairy tale and wished that something like that could happen to you? Family Foundation School staff member, Joan Parham, has reunited with her high school sweetheart in her own real-life fairytale.
Parham met her now-fiancé, Larry Hammond, in 1958 when they were in the fifth grade. They had similar interests growing up and were involved in activities, like ballroom dancing, together. They dated in junior high and high school, off-and-on for two years.
After high school, they didn’t see each other until 1979. Parham was living in Charlotte, N.C., and Hammond was married and singing in a rock band. He stopped by her house, as a friend, to see how she had been. After that, they didn’t see each other for 30 more years.
Earlier this year, the now divorced Hammond “Googled” Joan Parham. Even after all of these years, Hammond felt that she was the one he was supposed to be with.
Parham showed up as the organist on the St. James webpage. He then sent her an email asking, “Are you the Joan Parham that grew up in Roanoke and went to North Cross?”
After a few e-mails, they began regularly talking to one another. They talk for one or two hours daily.
After Parham’s own divorce, she said, “I’m not going to say I’ll never get married again, but God is going to have to put him right in front of me. I felt like this was God accepting the challenge.”
On March 20, Hammond asked Parham to be his wife.
Parham, who has a glow about her, said “It’s just kind of meant to be.”
