PLAINS — A couple, Cynthia Brooks, 49, and Alondo Thomas, 38, whose paths connected by similar circumstances, were married on Sept. 4 at Lillian Carter Nursing Center.

Brooks, a native of Hawaii, living in Orlando Fla., paralyzed on her right side, was hospitalized shortly before the first of the year and then referred to Lillian Carter Nursing Center. She arrived at the Center in January.

At about this time, across the northwestern end of Florida, Thomas, a native of New Jersey, born with spinal bifida, was living in Panama City when he was transferred to a hospital in Atlanta. Soon after, he was also referred to Lillian Carter, arriving in February.

As Thomas makes his way through the halls of the nursing center, opening the doors for his wife, the couple describe the beginnings of a relationship which was destined to bloom.

“The first time I saw her she was kind of mean to me,” said Thomas as he described talking the nurses into asking Brooks if she was single.

“I told them it was none of his business; I already had a boyfriend. But I was only trying to play hard to get,” she said with a laugh, explaining she was barely getting aquatinted with her new home.

“I said to myself, ‘oh my God, I am in a whole different state,’” she said.

Thomas and Brooks, over the next several months, had their ups and downs of trying to accept the transition into a new environment and then, the transition into a new relationship.

“I had a girl I was already talking with when I met her,” explained Thomas.

As time passed, Thomas and Brooks starting talking, both realizing they were highly compatible with one another.

“We both like to do the same things, listen to the same music, and we love to watch horror movies together, with popcorn and the works,” Thomas said.

“He can say something and I can finish it. I can read his mind. When you know someone like that, you know there is a connection,” said Brooks.

Brooks and Thomas courted for about six months, then the talk of marriage came up several times. They would decide, then postpone the plans. Then Thomas made arrangements to purchase a ring.

“A lot of people wouldn’t have known I proposed to her until she went around showing off her ring. She still does it,” said Thomas.

“He picked it out and surprised me,” Brooks said holding out her left hand, while describing their wedding day celebration.

“The staff decorated the dining room and all the residents came. They gave us a big reception afterwards with lots of food,” she said.

Brooks and Thomas said they have enjoyed many of the joys and advantages of an intimate relationship. One advantage which stands out in the couple’s minds is the fact of having someone there to just listen when one or the other is frustrated.

“When he is a mad about a situation, I listen,” she said describing intimacy as being able to be a good listener and communicator. Above all, the couple believes caring and sharing with one another is a highlight of their relationship which they cherish.

“He opens the door for me. If he opens something to eat, he offers me whatever he has to eat. He is very much a gentleman,” Brooks said, explaining that her husband isn’t like a Neanderthal, gobbling bags of chips down selfishly, like the men she had experienced before.

“He even likes to massage my feet! I had boyfriends before, and I would have to beg them, ‘Please massage my feet,’ but he loves to massage my feet. Isn’t that weird? I think it’s awesome,” she said.

Thomas said he knew he made the right decision in marrying Brooks because he would lay down his life for her.

“This is the first woman, I can honestly say, that I would give my life for,” he said. “And, if he was needing an organ, I would give it to him, even if it meant I would lose my life,” she said.

Brooks and Thomas’ future goals are to try and make it back to Florida and celebrate their wedding with some of their family members.

“Our wedding here was wonderful, but we would like to hold another celebration with some of our relatives,” Brooks said as she held out a plaque, a wedding gift, given to the couple by nursing center staff and residents. Embellished on the plaque is a cross, and in its center, a passage:

“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” — Ecclesiates 3:1