01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, May 8, 2005

Shelley Rossi and Bob MacDonald

The Rotunda at Crowne Plaza Hotel, Warwick

11.6.04

Shelley Rossi and Bob MacDonald met 15 years ago at the Mishnock Barn in Coventry, where Bob worked as a bouncer. "He can still tell you what I was wearing that night," says Shelley. "Someone kept buying me drinks, and the waitress would not tell me where they were coming from. I had to beg, and she finally pointed to Bob: 'He is the nicest guy and very shy.' " Shelley thanked him for being so generous. "All he could say was: 'You are just gorgeous.' That was Saturday, and by Monday I was getting cards in the mail. It seems that when he carded me at the door he memorized my name and address."

They talked on the phone a few times; Shelley told him that she had a boyfriend. "I was a bartender at Crackerjacks and he would come in just to look at me -- never rude or anything, just come by to tell me how pretty I was." They would lose touch for a while, then bump into each other, but the timing was always bad. Either he was with someone or she was.

A few years passed. Bob ran into some friends of Shelley's -- Cheryl, her maid of honor today, and her husband, Jamie. "Cheryl told him that I had just gotten married to a great guy, that I was very happy and doing well. Bobby looked positively crushed, according to Cheryl. It was true: I was very happy, married to a man that I adored."

Four months into the marriage, Shelley's husband, Greg, was diagnosed with a rare form of T-cell lymphoma. "We were married 17 months when he died. I was destroyed. I refused to eat, I couldn't sleep, I never left the house. I just wanted to die and be with him."

It was Cheryl who finally rescued Shelley. "She came to my house and said 'That's it! Get showered, get dressed, you're getting out of this house if I have to drag you out.' " Cheryl and Jamie took Shelley to Mardi Gras. "We were walking around and who did we run into? Mr. Wonderful from the Mishnock Barn! He gave me a hug, and whispered in my ear 'Please don't tell me you're single again because my heart couldn't take it.' I looked at him and said 'You don't know, do you?' " They talked all night.

Bob started calling Shelley often, just to see if she needed anything. "He would stop by with pizza and a movie. He was a perfect gentleman and respected what I had been through. After a year and a half of this, I started to look at him differently. He was so wonderful, so caring and considerate. He would even go to the cemetery with me. I knew that if I ever was to fall in love again, it would have to be with someone who would let me take Greg along. And Bobby did."

Shelley, now 37, and Bob, 39, both grew up in Rhode Island -- Bob went to South Kingstown High School, Shelley to West Warwick. She's an account manager for a mortgage lender, and he works in sales for a seafood distributor.

On October 28, 2003, Shelley and Bob were enroute to Florida. The pilot made the usual announcements: We are flying over the Hudson River, the current temperature is 54 degrees, we will be landing on time, and Bob MacDonald wants to know if Shelley will marry him. "Everyone on the plane screamed. I turned to him, with tears running down my face, and said yes."

Today, with a picture of Greg tucked inside the bodice of her wedding dress, Shelley says: "This is a marriage that was 15 years in the making. Bobby is truly my hero -- a big heart, strong mind, and a loving soul. My heart is happy again."