Brooke and Jason have crossed paths many times since they double dated for Senior Prom at Madison Memorial (1996), but they really didn't get to know each other until Brooke's Madison roommate, Heather, started dating Jason's friend, Paul Heidtke. They then hung out as part of the same larger group of friends.Brooke joined the Air Force in 2001 and moved to Northern California. The following year (October 2002), she came home to stand up for Paul and Heather's wedding and was paired to walk in with Jason.
In May 2003, Jason joined the party celebrating Brooke's save return home from war. (See photos by clicking on "Brooke's Friends" link above.) After Jason joined the Marines, they would occasionally talk about their experiences in the military.
Then came their 10-year high school reunion (August 2006), where they finally discovered they were interested in each other. In talking about all the things they had in common, they discovered that the previous Saturday they had both attended the funerals of their maternal grandmothers. They joked that their grandmothers were probably working from heaven to get them together.
Brooke flew out to visit Jason for her September birthday, which started monthly visits and nightly phone calls that finally ended last December when Jason got out of the Marines.