How We Met

On August 19, 2002, an unexpected meeting would take place that would change the lives of two individuals forever.

August 19, 2002, was a Monday. Ryan was living with his Aunt and Uncle, Shirley and Greg Rumsey, for the summer while he taking summer classes and working at Southern Adventist University (SAU).

His parents had come to town to celebrate his 22nd birthday the next day, August 20. That evening, his family decided to have dinner at The Olive Garden to celebrate. The evening progressed as any normal evening until a friend of his Uncle Jim’s came into the restaurant. Upon seeing each other, Uncle Jim and Greg Sutherland started to visit. They visited for about 15 to 20 minutes, when Greg got this idea.

Greg had brought several young people with him that evening, as he usually does whenever he’s in town. In the group was a young lady, Mindy Price. Mindy had spent of most the summer at Greg’s house with her best friend, Janell Pettibone—Greg’s Cousin, in Arkansas. While there, Janell and Mindy painted several murals for the local church school. The day before they came back to SAU they had enjoyed skydiving and were riding high from the experience. They just got into town and also decided to eat at The Olive Garden to celebrate.

He brought over Mindy, a very beautiful young lady, who was totally embarrassed and completely red from head to toe. After the introduction, Greg gave Ryan Mindy.s phone number. Ryan immediately knew he wanted to see her again.

The next night Ryan called her and asked if she would join him on a date the next night. Not knowing what to do, Mindy said she couldn’t because her friends would only be in town for the next couple of days. Ryan, being persistent for once, asked if Friday night was open, but it wasn’t. This time she had to pick up a friend at the airport and didn’t know when the fight was scheduled to arrive.

Ryan was disheartened but wasn’t going to give up. The next evening, Wednesday evening, he called for a second time, only to be turned down once again. At this point Ryan didn’t have much hope they would see each other again. However, two days later-Friday night-Mindy tried to call Ryan.

Yet, as luck would have it, Ryan didn’t receive the call as he purchsaed a new cell phone and number. Luckily Mindy decided to leave a message at his old number. Ryan called her Saturday after church and invited her to lunch at his Uncle Jim.s house. She accepted the invitation and they spent 12 wonderful hours together.

And the rest as they say is history.

Mindy Herman

Mindy Price was born on January 6th, 1983 to Ron and Ruth Price in Rochester, IN. She grew up in the town of Logansport where she became best friends with the girl next door, Alicia Sammons, who was 9 months older than her.

Though she lived in many different houses since her parents divorce, she has always called Logansport home.

After going all the way through to high school graduation in the public school system, Mindy was ready to attend a Seventh-day Adventist school for her higher education. She narrowed it down to Union college in Lincoln, NE, and Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, TN. To decide which one to attend, she put it in the hands of God and went with the one that accepted her first.

As it turned out, Mindy went to SAU, a full 8 hours away from home where she knew absolutely no one. Within a couple days she realized that there was a girl, Janell Pettibone, who was in almost all the same classes as her. Within weeks the girls were best of friends. They spent their spring break together freshman year and then spent 3 weeks together during the summer in Arkansas, vacationing and painting murals for the elementary school. Upon their return to Tennessee with Greg Sutherland, Janell’s cousin from AR with whom they had stayed, they went to the Olive garden along with Janell’s brother and his roommate. They were celebrating Mindy and Janell’s recent skydiving adventure. Little did they suspect that the celebration of one adventure would lead to a whole new adventure.

While at the Olive Garden, Mindy was introduced to Ryan Herman. From there the rest is history.

Mindy graduated on May 1, 2005 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.

You can view Mindy’s art work at her own website

The Proposal

The date was April 19th, 2003. The Sunrise Pageant was taking place on the campus of Southern Adventist University. Mindy, being a Campus Safety Officer, had to work all day for the event. While Mindy was at work, Ryan started to get the plan together and decorated most of the afternoon.

When Mindy got off work, she came straight over to Ryan’s apartment. As it was our 7th month anniversary she knew something was up, but in reality she had no idea what was about to happen.

As she came into the door, she was greeted the sound of her favorite song, \”When You Kiss Me\” by Shania Twain. At the bottom of the stairs was a Ryan original poem encircled by a heart that had a chain that guided her up into the kitchen. Once in the Kitchen she was greeted by a wall of white balloons. As she made her way into the balloon she came upon Ryan kneeling in the middle. He lovingly took her hand, looked into her beautiful eyes and asked the fateful question, \”Will you marry me?\”

The look on her face was priceless, if only a camera had been present. With sheer joy across her face she replied, \”Yes!\”

We made our way back to Olive Garden that evening to further celebrate and called family and friends to share the happy news.

Ryan Herman

Ryan Herman was born on August 20, 1980 to Ron and Linda Herman, in a small town, Columbus, NC. Columbus has always been his home. He attended the local church school until his 5th grade year, when he then attended Captain Gilmore Elementary in Fletcher, NC. Here he met Kevin Johnson who was also in the 5th grade. Nathaniel Sawtell (NJ) also attended Captain Gilmore, but was a grade ahead of him.

Kevin and Ryan became close friends and have enjoyed many years of friendship that continues even today. After grade school, both of them decided to attend Mount Pisgah Academy. At Pisgah he made many new friends, among those were Cort Sommerville and Morgan Kochenower. During his junior year at Pisgah, NJ and Ryan became roommates and formed a close friendship.

After graduation in 1999, Ryan went to Andrews University (AU) in Berrien Springs, Michigan. NJ graudated the year before and decided to attend AU, to pursue a Computer Engineering Technology Degree. Since Ryan was interested in computers as well, he decided to attend Andrews with NJ. However, after his first year, he decided Computer Engineering was not the correct major. In 2000 both NJ and Ryan decided to move to Tennessee and attend SAU to pursue a B.S. in Computer System Administration.

Before his senior year at SAU, he was introduced to a lovely young lady, Mindy Price. (how we met) Mindy and Ryan started dating in September 2002, and by April 19, 2003 they were engaged.