{"id":30935,"date":"2024-03-27T15:03:27","date_gmt":"2024-03-27T19:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=30935"},"modified":"2024-06-11T10:40:16","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T14:40:16","slug":"after-the-aisle-sunset-wishes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/after-the-aisle-sunset-wishes\/","title":{"rendered":"After the Aisle: Sunset Wishes"},"content":{"rendered":"

After two scrubbed attempts at a proposal, nothing could deter Nick Yurco \u201920 from asking Ann Ludlow \u201920 for her hand in marriage. Not even a few beached jellyfish.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unaware of Nick\u2019s ploy, Ann trod carefully with Nick along the shore of Sullivan\u2019s Island in South Carolina until they arrived at a secluded point. Per childhood tradition, Ann asked Nick to close his eyes and make a wish just before the sun dipped below the horizon.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nick summoned the courage to drop to a knee, place a ring on Ann\u2019s finger and ask her to be his wife. \u201cShe was freaking out,\u201d says Nick, whose only wish was a successful proposal. Moments before, Ann recalls just wanting peace of mind for the next phase of their relationship as Nick was headed to Atlanta to take a new job.<\/span><\/p>\n

That was May 2022. The two met in 2016 during \u201cfreshman serenade,\u201d a tradition where young men are corralled at various campus housing facilities and then belt out pop songs to young women watching the spectacle from their balconies. They, in turn, shower candy upon the crooners.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nick and Ann dated that first year, but things went sideways, and they wondered aloud if they were too young to understand what they needed from each other.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a bad breakup,\u201d remembers Ann.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, that bridge was burned. It was in ashes,\u201d Nick says. It took time and support from friends to restore the relationship.<\/span><\/p>\n

During sophomore year, Nick, a computer science major, and Ann, who was on an art scholarship, landed in the same calculus class with now-retired Professor Marty Cook. \u201cI nearly had a heart attack,\u201d Nick says, when Ann walked into class for the first time. At Nick\u2019s urging, they sat beside each other, made amends and a rich friendship ensued.<\/span><\/p>\n

They remember Sunday morning omelets at the Dining Hall and conversations on the benches circling Furman Lake. They devised a system of ranking benches on a scale of <\/span>1 to 10. The swinging bench on the far shore of Furman Lake is the only 10, they insist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Senior year brought a renewed romance. Later, the COVID-19 pandemic struck.<\/span><\/p>\n

On their spring break trip in 2020, they were elated to learn break would be extended by another week, but somewhat disappointed that classes would go online to finish the semester.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCOVID was a terrible thing, but it was kind of a blessing for our relationship,\u201d Ann says. \u201cWe were planning on breaking up after graduation because I was moving to Charleston and Nick was moving to Wisconsin for a job. It didn\u2019t make sense to do long distance,\u201d she recounts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ann had carried a heavy course load at Furman and met the prerequisites to enroll in a selective occupational therapy program at the Medical University of South Carolina where classes were online. That meant Ann could visit Nick in Wisconsin for weeks at a time and still remain on track.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ann graduated in 2023 with a clinical doctorate in occupational therapy that allows her to deliver in-home care to Upstate patients. \u201cNow that Ann is making the big bucks,\u201d Nick jokes, he\u2019s logging flight hours to secure his dream of becoming a commercial airline pilot.<\/span><\/p>\n

Married Oct. 14, 2023, Nick and Ann count Furman as the most foundational part of their relationship.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been together four years straight. We treasure the support from our friends, professors and staff at Furman,\u201d Ann says. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t change a thing,\u201d Nick adds.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nick Yurco \u201920 and Ann Ludlow Yurco \u201920<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":257,"featured_media":30936,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2665,1963,2660],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-class-notes-spring-2024","category-furman-magazine","category-spring-2024"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/257"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30935"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32628,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30935\/revisions\/32628"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}