RIGHT TIME RIGHT PLACE

She warmed up in the sun, he warmed up to her

Connie and Mike Griffin on their wedding day, May 25, 2014
Connie and Mike Griffin on their wedding day, May 25, 2014

The air conditioning drove Connie Petrik out into the hot summer sun. If she'd donned a cozy sweater and stayed inside, this would be quite a different story, or not one 'tall.

Connie works in product development at Dillard's corporate office on Cantrell Road in Little Rock. One day during that hot summer of 2012, she felt chilly, so she wandered out onto the third floor balcony of her office building to warm up. Mike Griffin, who works in store planning, was out there, too, stretching his legs and taking in the view of the state Capitol and watching people walk by.

The opportunity to chitchat about the weather, the events of the day, what they did over the weekend and whatever else came up was a welcome diversion. Mike noted early on that Connie used plural pronouns when she talked about her life outside of work.

"She would say, 'We did this, we did that, we went there ...'" he says. "I just thought that she had a partner. Our relationship just developed in that friendship sort of way because of that."

As the weather outside cooled down and the temperature inside warmed, Connie found her way to the balcony less often, and the stream of small talk between them dried up. "My job is mostly a desk job and so is hers, so there's not a lot of passing in the hallway."

They had occasional encounters at the coffee station outside Mike's office.

"Sometimes he would come by my desk and just say goodbye at the end of the day," Connie says.

As Christmas neared, Mike bought a bunch of gift cards for friends and family. He decided to give his extra one to Connie.

"I thought, 'Well, I can give this to her. It's not imposing or being too forward or anything like that.' It was just Merry Christmas, here's a gift card to Applebee's, go get a little something to eat," he says. "She came back a week later and said, 'I'll accept this on one condition: If we spend it.' I was a little shocked at that."

For Connie, there was nothing particularly untoward about the invitation. After all, she knew she wasn't spoken for.

"I didn't want to go by myself," she says with a laugh. "And I thought it was a funny thing to say."

He quickly recovered from his surprise, and they agreed to make it dinner, together, Jan. 12, 2013.

"Both of us had been married before and had been through rough times," says Mike, explaining that he had been reluctant to put himself out on the forefront of the dating scene.

He had concluded by then that she didn't have a husband or a boyfriend, but it wasn't until the night they shared the gift card that he learned that the other person who made up the "we" in all of Connie's earlier stories was her son, Todd Petrik, with whom she was living at the time.

On one of their first few dates, they exchanged driver's licenses to prove to each other that they shared a birthdate: May 20. Over time, they learned that Connie's parents were married on May 5 and Mike's parents were married on May 15, meaning that May 5, 15 and 20 were all special family occasions.

Mike decided to complete the sequence by proposing on May 10. As the time drew near, he arranged to have someone give flowers to Connie while they watched an Arkansas Travelers baseball game, and he invited Todd and some of their friends to sit in the row behind them.

On the day of the game, an engagement ring in his pocket, Mike stared aghast at the sight of the flowers going past their seats and ending up in the hands of a woman in the section in front of them. He quickly pulled some strings and got a pizza coupon delivered to his intended instead, and as their images appeared on the stadium's big screen he asked her if she would be his wife.

Mike and Connie extended their number pattern even further by exchanging vows on May 25, 2014, at the Old Mill in North Little Rock.

"May will be an exciting month for us in the future and one we will never ever forget, especially since all of the numbers lined up for us," Connie says.

They still work together at Dillard's, and when the temperature outside rises and the temperature inside takes a dive, they still sometimes end up on the third floor balcony at the same time. Things are different now, of course.

"We're excited to be starting on this journey because we're both in our 60s and neither of us expected it," Connie says. "We're just happy to be together."

The first time I saw my future spouse:

She says: “I thought he was nice, and I wanted to get to know him more, but I certainly wasn’t thinking future spouse.”

He says: “The furthest thing from my mind was marrying her. She was just a face on the balcony, and there was nothing special in the moment.”

On our first date:

She says: “I was excited and couldn’t wait to get to know him better.”

He says: “I was as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.”

On our wedding day:

She says: “When my son walked me down the sidewalk my heart was full of love and I was all smiles. I couldn’t wait to get married. I was so happy and excited.”

He says: “I was probably just as nervous as you can imagine. I’m not one to be the center of attention.”

If you have an interesting how-we-met story or know someone who does, please call (501) 378-3496 or email:

[email protected]

High Profile on 07/27/2014

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