EGAN m@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2003-09-13 published
EGAN /
STOVER
Pat and Marg
EGAN along with Ross and Linda
STOVER are pleased
to announce the forthcoming marriage of their children Jennifer
and Bruce in London, Ontario this fall.
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EGAN m@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2005-11-03 published
Will you Mayor-y me?
London's Anne Marie
DECICCO and Tim
BEST are planning to wed
after a whirlwind romance.
By MARY-
JANE
EGAN, Free Press Reporter, Thurs., November 3, 2005
Mayor Anne Marie
DECICCO cuddles with fiance Tim
BEST, a London
native now living in Dallas, Texas, yesterday after the couple
announced plans to marry next year.
BEST proposed Sunday during
dinner in Port Stanley. (Morris
LAMONT, The London Free Press)
London
Mayor
Anne Marie
DECICCO dropped a bombshell -- but this
one was purely personal -- at city hall yesterday: She's getting
married.
Dressed in a red suit and flashing a glittering diamond and a
broad smile, the 40-year-old, never-wed, two-term mayor invited
reporters into her office to meet the man she plans to marry
next year.
"We do have a date but we're finalizing it, so I don't want to
jinx too much of that right now,"
DECICCO said as well-wishers
arrived with congratulatory hugs and to view the diamond.
Tim BEST, 44, a London native now living in Dallas, Texas, and
the owner of two Texas Junior B hockey teams, met
DECICCO
May
22 at a Memorial Cup hockey game at the John Labatt Centre.
The whirlwind romance that ensued -- kept carefully under wraps
-- culminated Sunday when
BEST proposed during a romantic fireside
dinner at Port Stanley's Kettle Creek Inn.
Port
Stanley was chosen for "sentimental reasons,"
DECICCO said,
noting one of their first dates was a walk along the Lake Erie
beach.
"Yes, he got down on one knee,"
DECICCO confirmed, prompting
BEST to quip: "I slipped."
BEST, who plans to return to London in April after hockey season
wraps up for his teams the Dallas Titans and Fort Worth Texans,
said he will maintain ownership of the teams.
BEST said he will give up his role as general manager of Hockey
Group LP to his coaches.
The two teams are ranked third and 19th in the U.S.
"I'll take a trip down (to Texas) once a month for a couple of
days but as president of a company like that, it's very easy
to monitor from up here,"
BEST said.
After the wedding, they plan to live in the London house
DECICCO
bought a year ago.
DECICCO, who plans to seek a third term as mayor next year, has
already recruited
BEST to co-chair one of her campaign teams.
"I feel like I've been blessed in so many ways in my life with
a great family and great Friends and this is just an amazing
job. But this completes my circle in a lot of ways,"
DECICCO
said of the engagement.
"We definitely want to have a family and I'm really looking forward
to that, but we've also talked about running (for election) again
and Tim's 110 per cent behind that."
BEST and
DECICCO went to the same high school, but he didn't
know her then. He was in Grade 13 at Catholic Central high school
when she was in Grade 9 there. He went to school with her brother,
Dom, while
DECICCO shared classes with
BEST's sister.
It was after a Memorial Cup game
BEST approached
DECICCO for
directions to an automated teller machine.
"I knew Anne Marie was the mayor, but it was dark and I didn't
recognize her and she had all her (London) Knights stuff on and
she was wearing this big badge, so I honestly thought she was
working at the game," said
BEST. "
She gave me directions and,
later, we were introduced in the Molson tent."
DECICCO has dated off and on, but said her last serious relationship
was when she was in her 20s. She kept her relationship with
BEST
quiet until "I knew he was the right guy."
Since they met, he's made several trips to London and she, too,
to Dallas.
BEST let slip they took a vacation together, but
DECICCO made
it clear that topic was off limits.
"I've always been really serious when it comes to relationships
and, obviously, I have a very responsible job and you want to
be sure that when someone becomes a part of your life that they
understand it fully and this job is important not just for me
but for the community,"
DECICCO said.
Early in their relationship,
DECICCO said the couple began talking
about the future.
"We have the same values and the same morals and we're both Catholic
and there are a lot of things that bind us together and he really
understands my job and he knows it's not 9 to 5 and he's going
to be eating dinner by himself once in a while. But he doesn't
have a traditional job, either, so we understand each other and
are supportive -- and you know I'm a huge hockey fan."
BEST was married in 1982 at 21, a relationship that lasted only
a year and a half and produced a son, Ryan, 22, who will be his
father's best man.
Ryan coaches one of his dad's teams and
DECICCO describes him
as "just terrific -- he's my buddy."
BEST, who visited
DECICCO's parents, Frank and Bettina, the night
before he proposed to ask Frank for his daughter's hand, said
both families have become close.
"I told her dad this can't happen without your blessing and he
said he saw a lot of the same things in me as himself and he
lived his life for Anne Marie and he could see I would do the
same," said
BEST.
"Our families are really emotional,"
DECICCO said. "Everyone's
been crying at various times, my staff, my Friends, my family."
DECICCO, only the second London mayor in recent memory to wed
in office -- Deputy Mayor Tom
GOSNELL was the first -- said she
believes marriage will make her happier and enhance her role
as mayor.
"I think just about every other mayor that's been doing this
job has been married, so it's not like I'm breaking new ground
here.
"I spend a lot of time at events and now Tim will be there and
that will be an enhancement to the things I do. This job has
been the best experience I've ever had, but like everyone else,
there are days when you just need someone to be there for you
and I've seen that in the months we've been together and it's
just going to be a bonus when he's actually living here and we're
married."
BEST's parents are lifelong Londoners. His father, Ted, retired
after 30 years as a blacksmith at GM Diesel and his mother, Carolyn,
is a retired porter from London Health Sciences Centre. They
own a four-hectare hobby farm on Dundas Street East.
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EGAN m@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2006-05-20 published
EGAN /
TAVARES -- Forthcoming Marriage
Ellen EGAN of London and Elsa
TAVARES of Woodstock are pleased
to announce the engagement and forthcoming marriage of their
children, Clinton Maurice
EGAN and Lizette De Sousa
TAVARES.
The
wedding is to take place May 27, 2006 at St. Rita's Roman Catholic
Church in Woodstock.
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