'He Truly Has Been My Prince Charming'

By Linda Acevedo

Eighteen years ago, after a very difficult marriage, I found myself a single mother with two small girls, ages two and four. My dad was dying of cancer and I decided to take the girls back to Connecticut so we could spend time with my father and to support my mom who was still grieving the sudden death of my brother. I worked fulltime as a secretary but with no child support and the cost of daycare, I was struggling.

After I had been back almost a year, I ran into an old classmate at my gym from East Haven High. We had a great conversation and talked for a long time and I would run into him quite often at the gym and sometimes at happy hours. The night before Valentine’s Day, I went to Toad’s place in New Haven with a couple of girlfriends for an Eddy Money concert. I was pleasantly surprised to see Mark there. We laughed and danced all night and had a wonderful time.

The next day he called and asked me out to dinner but I declined saying I did not want to leave my girls two nights in a row, I invited him over for chili instead. He arrived at the door with an armful of coloring books, crayons and sticker books for the girls. He also made them a beautiful fruit salad which they loved and he brought me a couple of bottles of his homemade wine. I think we fell in love that night and the rest is history. Sixteen years later we are still happily married and he truly has been my prince charming who over the years helped me support and raise my children.

Today we are partners in life and in business as we both work together as a team selling real estate and doing property management in East Haven.

Mark and Linda Acevedo live in North Branford and summer in East Haven at Cosey Beach in one of their rental cottages.