Keisha Shakespeare, Freelance Writer
It was never love at first sight. Diane Shepherd and Shawn Johnson thought that the other had a "mi better than yuh" attitude.
Shepherd reckoned that Johnson thought he was God's gift to woman. She, on the other hand, used her stand-offish attitude as a defence mechanism to keep away the "hungry predators".
They eventually got past that stage and tied the knot last December 19 at The View in Smoky Vale, St. Andrew.
Justice of the Peace and Civil Registrar Silvera Castro officiated at the ceremony.
Shepherd, 31, is the first child of Beryl and Shirley Shepherd. She is the settlement officer at First Global Bank in New Kingston. Johnson, 23, is the first born of two for his
parents Sandra Grooves and Horace Johnson. He is a medical records officer at Mona Rehabilitation Centre.
The couple met in June 2001 while they were at an annual East Jamaica Conference of Seventh-Day Adventist basketball league. That summer the league was held at the Kencot Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Kingston. Shepherd was on the management committee of her church team, Rollington Town Seventh-Day. Johnson, though not a member of the Rollington Seventh-Day, was a member of the basketball team.
'YUH TOO BOASTY'
Shepherd recalls that while assisting her team members Johnson managed to get under her skin., forcing her to burst out, "Yuh are too boasty and yuh too full a yuh self".
"When I told him he was boasty in front of everyone he came over and asked me for my telephone number. I refused and he told me he just wanted to talk to me about what I said and he did not like that I said those things in the presence of everyone."
She didn't give it to him. However, he got it from a friend and called her three days later.
"We cleared the air and got into a long conversation for about 45 minutes. That's when I realised that he was nice person."
That launched a telephone friendship that often saw them hurrying home to chit chat on the phone. The couple said the frequent conversations made them realise how much they had in common. They discovered, for example, that they were both ambitious and family oriented.
In March 2003 Johnson proposed to Shepherd on her birthday through a poem he wrote entitled 'When I say I do'. A month later, after lunch at Island Life Mall in New Kingston, he presented her with an engagement ring, officially asking her to be his wife.
"When Shawn proposed I was speechless, nervous and I had butterflies," remembered Shepherd.
The couple said their 'I dos' under cloudy skies and drizzling rain -- but that didn't dampen the love they pledged for each other.
