The Barn, A Love Story
Do you know the song, “Had I Known You Better Then” by Hall and Oates? Even though I didn’t know the song at the time, when I think back to the first time I saw my husband, in the dappled sunlight of the Big Red Barn, it’s the soundtrack.
It was early fall, when at 6 PM the sun still finds its way into the Barn to sparkle on the dollar beers. On that particular day, the sun also framed his silhouette as he tucked his hair behind his ears— that image is forever burned in my mind. I was utterly intrigued. Strangely, we were wearing similar clothes (striped red shirts with light blue sweaters). I remember joking how we dressed the same “even though we hadn’t woken up together”.
I was in the second year of my PhD, and he was visiting for the semester from Harvard. The proximity of the Barn to the Physics Department (his home) and the Nutrition Department (mine) ensured our paths crossed enough times that we fell truly, madly, and deeply in love.
In 2010, we returned to Cornell, both as faculty. On a similar fall Friday, we returned to the Barn, this time with our little daughter. With dollar beers in our hands, and goldfish in hers, we sat on a picnic table and toasted the place that had brought us together, with the evening sun warming all of our faces.
Sera Young's family: husband Julius Lucks and their two kids.
