LOVE IS IN LOVE IS IN LOVE IS IN THE AIR THE AIR THE AIR

Aquinas has been the beginning of several love stories over the years. This past Valentines Day a few these couples shared their Aquinas

Love Story

John and Kim Hunsaker '89

Johnny and I met at Aquinas and have been together since 1988 - our junior Prom! Before the Prom, we were study partners on opposing sides of a class debate topic as well. I used to leave my English book at home on purpose so we would have to share books in class. We were also on the Track team together. We said, "I Do" in 1997 and have two amazing sons: Ethan, age 21, and Riley, age 18. Truly Blessed!!

George '03 and Janae '04 Anagnostopoulos

George and I met through our friends when I was in 8th grade and he was a freshman at Aquinas. We dated all through high school and college. We got married in 2010 after dating for 10 years!! We have been married for 12 years and together for 22 years! We have two amazing twin boys who are 9, a beautiful daughter who is 5 and another daughter due in June! Aquinas has always been a huge part of our love story. We are still very much apart of Aquinas with George coaching football.

Kevin and Stephanie Wenclewicz '10

Stephanie and I met our freshmen year at Aquinas; we had five classes together. The short version of our story is that she asked me to the Sadie Hawkins dance our freshmen year and I said yes. A couple weeks later there was a group of our friends who went to the movies (and of course rigged it so that we sat next to each other). At the end of the movie I asked her to be my girlfriend, she said yes, and we've been dating ever since! It's been a little over 16 years now, and we have been married since June 2018. We live in San Diego where I work as a high school math teacher and Stephanie works as an occupational therapist. Thank you, and go Falcons!

Eliseo and Diana Ruiz '72

Eliseo and I met in third grade at St. Anne’s, which is now Our Lady of Hope. I guess we connected then because Elly says he had a crush on me all through grade school... even when I had buck teeth. Elly is a nickname that was given to him by another elementary school friend. Elly started working during summers when he was 14 to help fund his tuition at Aquinas so that he could stay with his friends from St. Anne’s, many of whom he had played city league sports with as well. Back then, Aquinas was an all-boys school, and being smaller, it provided more opportunities to play sports. He played basketball and football. I attended St. Bernardine’s, the girls’ high school, so we rarely saw the boys that we had grown up with at St. Anne’s. Elly and I attended the football homecoming dance together during ninth grade, but it was a disaster. 1971-1972 brought the guys and gals together when the two schools combined at the Aquinas site. Elly and I spent most of our senior year doing fun things together. We discovered that we shared many of the same values, experiences, and interests, including foreign countr and languages. By then, Elly was the quarterback, and I w a cheerleader. We fell crazy in love. However, the following year would take me away to college and Elly away to Switzerland as an exchange student, so the relationship pre much came to a halt. In those days, it was difficult to communicate; there were no personal computers or the internet. Phone calls to Europe were very expensive, so we could only write letters. Miraculously we eventually reunit married at 22, finished college, and went on to raise two amazing sons. Many years after we were married, it occurr to us that we had walked down the aisle together for first communion, confirmation, and high school graduation. We wondered if the Immaculate Heart nuns and Father O’Tool had been trying to match us up from the start. The Class of ’72, the first co-ed graduating class continued to hold reunions about every five years. We celebrated our 50th H School reunion last fall and were able to reconnect with the majority of our classmates. It was a heartwarming experience, and many commented about how fortunate we all were to attend Aquinas High School.

Adrian Gonzalez and Traci Brody '82

LOVE from class of 1982 This is a true story of two alumni Falcons. My name is Adrian Gonzales. I graduated class of 1982. I have been happily married to Traci ( Dittenhaver) Brody , a fellow class mate of 1982 . Although we did graduate the same year from Aquinas , we never really knew each other . When we were in high school, we had several common friends . In 2002 , Traci was involved in reaching out to the class mates of ‘82, for a twenty year reunion. Traci’s mother Pat was a good friend of my mother at the time prior to this 20 year reunion event . I was told by my mom that her friend had a daughter that was planning this high school reunion for our class. It was at that event , in Indian Wells in June of 2002 that fate would take over both our lives. I immediately fell in love with Traci. She was, and still is very compassionate and genuinely caring. We met on that Saturday night of that weekend, and we are still together today . Our love and command faith in God has kept us strong, together to greet life’s tough challenges. We’ve experienced change of careers, growth of children into adults , death of parents , and becoming grandparents. I never would have thought my beautiful and loving spouse was at the same high school, in the same graduating class, but I do thank God that He was brought us together. We are blessed

Cesar and Anika Navarro '13

We started dating the summer going into senior year and have been together almost 11 years and married almost 4 years. It’s fun to remember and think about how we met and the fun memories we have made together beginning at Aquinas. We have two beautiful baby girls our oldest is 18 months and our second is 3 months.

Jim and I met the summer before I went into high school at Aquinas! Since my sister was dating his cousin, our paths were bound to cross. He was the captain of the football team and I was the captain of the cheer squad. We started dating my sophomore year and his junior year, and we instantly fell in love! Jim got a Division 1 football scholarship to the University of Texas at El Paso and I went on to college at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo where we had a long distance relationship for about 5years. Once we both graduated we moved back to our hometowns and it was so amazing to be in the same place again. Jim is now a San Bernardino County Sheriff and I am a Speech Language Pathologist. Jim also used to coach for the football team and we love to go and support the amazing program! We also have our little boy, Cooper, who we love more than anything. We can’t wait for him to be a future falcon and to add more little falcons to our family. Oh and of course have to mention our two miniature schnauzers, Blue and Pooka, who make our family complete! Thank you Aquinas for helping me meet the love of my life! We can’t wait to see what’s in store for us next!

John '00 and Lauron '03 Steinmann

I was a freshman and John was a senior. John was always my senior crush. His argyle socks, bike chain wallet, pumas...I loved it all! His mom was my cheer coach and I remember our first date...at cheer practice I was so excited to tell her we were going on a date. Before we even dated I wrote in his sisters yearbook that I would marry her brother. Well that first date lead to 5.5 years of dating and now almost 21 years later we are married with two beautiful boys and coming on our 15 year wedding anniversary! Aquinas holds so many memories in our hearts. I’m most grateful for meeting my husband there, having Aquinas as such a memorable and positive experience, and leaving there with the faith that brought us together.

Mickey '74 and Julie '75 Donlon

This is Julie Fitzgerald Donlon. My husband and I went to Aquinas in the 1970's. Here's our love story: Back in 1972, 2 days before school started for my sophomore year at Aquinas, my BFF, Patti McCready, and I went shopping at the auction in Colton. With our new school clothes in our shopping bags, we headed across the 4 lane street to where Patti's mom was waiting to pick us up. We only got to the middle of the street when a car struck us. The ambulance took us to St. Bernardine's Hospital. Unbeknownst to me, while this was happening, Mickey Donlon was planning to ask me out on what would have been our first date that day. He tried calling my house several times, but no one was there to answer. He called Patti's house until he finally got in touch with Patti's dad who told him we were in the hospital. He came to visit me that first night, and kept coming day after day for the whole month I was there. Needless to say, he had a captive audience. I couldn't go anywhere. So our love affair started then and is still going strong all these years later. We've grown up together. We dated all through high school and got married about a year after I graduated. We have 4 amazing children who all have incredible spouses. We have 4 grandchildren (so far) who are the most adorable and precious people on earth. And they love their Amma and Papa. We are blessed with so much love in our family. In a few days, we will be celebrating our 46th anniversary (WHAT?!!!) When people ask us how we met, we just tell them, "by accident."

Paul and Suzanne Dainko ''87

During our four years at Aquinas we were falcons passing in the quad, sharing classes on occasion, the BMOC and the wall flower. Fast forward 16 years later, the Holy Spirit used a diocesan ministry formation day at St. George, Ontario to bring us back together. Eighteen months later, we were married and now have three secondgeneration falcons in the family, Classes of 2025, 2027, & 2029.