Jessica and I met back in 2003. I had just returned from a semester abroad in Spain. We immediately became friends, working together slinging drinks within the confines of a busy Chicago nightclub. Pride & gratitude flood my heart with the fact that God, the Universe, Source, allowed us to become friends before becoming lovers. What a gift, as this served our relationship time and time again over the twelve years to come. Fun fact, on the day we became lovers, we just so happened to get drunk and hook up… this too makes me grin with gratitude. As one would imagine that’s not an all too rare occurrence within the bar scene, but our tenure as a couple was quite the anomaly. We sure as shit had a ton of fun back in those days; didn’t save a dime, made many lifelong friends, and learned to keep having fun no matter the circumstance. As fun and easygoing as our lives were back then, we began longing for something more. Jess especially, longing for a healthier mind, body, lifestyle and most of all, purpose.

 

So she went back to school, studying holistic living at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. So as our bartending days thinned to a halt, we poured investment into our very own health & wellness business. CHEW Chicago - Complete Health, Education & Wellness. This was Jessica’s baby. Her passion for teaching others how to incorporate and maintain a healthy lifestyle was truly inspiring, and quite rare at the time. When we started CHEW back in 2008, most folks didn’t consider their health and happiness to be so heavily connected to the food they ate. The word gluten was unheard of, and other words like, health, wellness, and Chicago, were not typically spoken in the same sentence. Many thought Jess was a lunatic for health concepts considered duh these days.

 

Our dreams were massive, our plan solid and uninhibited by circumstance as we saw ourselves living a life chasing an endless summer. We realized we could run CHEW from Chicago over the summer and fall, before relocating to Costa Rica for their summer - hosting wellness retreats and maybe a bit of fun mixed in. The two of us fell in love with Costa Rica upon our first visit in 2009. It didn’t hurt that we got engaged cliffside taking in an epic sunset. Exactly two years later on 3/25, we recreated the experience with 55 of our closest friends and family, this time from a mountaintop. Check out some of the pics here (add link). In Jess’ words, “It was a week I could experience again and again.” Post wedding bliss, business began picking up, so much so I was able to leave my corporate gig and join Jess within the ranks of CHEW. Little did we know a storm was brewing just beyond the horizon. What laid ahead would test our reality, our bond with others, and our love.

 

Jess was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, we were absolutely shocked but fell into manage mode, handling our situation with dedication and determination. This is where things got a bit nuts.  Writing this now feels like I’m telling the story of a man I interviewed just moments prior. Friends, family, acquaintances, and strangers bonded together; helping us navigate these confusing and frightening times as we battled for all that we held dear. Our struggle raged for years, with many triumphs and tragedies. In the end, cancer won the battle with Jessica’s body… but her spirit won the war. She departed from her earthly body at exactly 3:25, the same numerical value as our wedding anniversary. This was the first supernatural clue to the rarity of our love, and prowess of Jessica’s spirit. This is also where our earthly marriage ended. More importantly though, this is where the story of two soulmates, tethered between differing realms yet eternally united, began.