There’s more to it than hair; but . . . .
In 2003, Wendy Michener, a mid-life architecture student from Raleigh, joined the Board of Quaker House in Fayetteville NC. Soon she was Clerk of the House & Grounds Committee (there were no other volunteers).
As Director since early 2002, I had seen from early on that Quaker House had many needs for house repairs and renovations. After all, it was built in the 1920s, and was once home to an up-and-coming young lawyer named Terry Sanford (and was now part of Fayetteville’s “historic district.”
But I had been candid with the Board that– unlike several earlier Directors, who had done many repairs on their own–I was not a “handyman,” DIY type. Some matters could be ignored (and had been for years), but others could not: the roof leaked, and leaked more with each serious rainstorm. Pipes froze and flooded a semi-basement room. Old bricks were loose or crumbling. Et cetera.
Needs such as these brought Wendy to visit often, to poke around.
And over time we struck up many conversations, which, by the end of 2003 were on the edge of courting.
In November of 2003, the house heating system failed, and it was cold. We sent out an urgent appeal, donations came in, and soon a new system was installed: Wendy spent much time managing the technical details.
However, on January 27, the night before the new system cranked up, one last gasp of the bunch of space heaters we had used in the interim set some wires smoldering in the attic.
The fire department came and saved us from any significant damage, but it was a close call, and exposed to city inspectors that much of the wiring in the house was of the 1920s, cloth-wrapped, highly inflammable vintage, and required immediate replacement. (Lots more renovations were to follow.)

After the shock of that near miss, Wendy stayed the night in the guest room; and the next morning, she reached out her hand . . .
And we have been an item since, after Fayetteville here in Durham. As of today (January 28, 2024) it’s twenty years and counting…
And yes, that rumor is true: I’ve been bringing her flowers the whole time.