SULTAN — Mayor Carolyn Eslick received the invitation on a piece of paper during a Toastmasters meeting.
On it, Charles Lee Donaldson invited Eslick to participate at a golf event for couples. She asked him if it was a date. He replied it was.
The event wound up being cancelled, so Donaldson, now 65, asked her to go bowling instead.
“We are on our second year in a bowling league,” Eslick, 61, said. “I am still terrible, but we have fun going so it doesn’t matter.”
That was two years ago.
Now the couple are preparing to get married June 1 at a private ceremony at the Volunteers of America Sky Valley Family Support Center. It will be a small wedding with family and friends.
Eslick’s late husband Don, died from complications of Alzheimer’s disease two years ago. The couple were the longtime owners of The Dutch Cup.
“Colleagues have told me that it’s a good time to be happy,” Eslick said.
Donaldson, who is now retired after 33 years of teaching, said it was Eslick’s smile and sense of humor that attracted him. The relationship has been very smooth, he said.
“It’s like ice cream, every now and then you hit a cold spot, but it’s not very often,” he said.
The two of them have known each other for about 25 years when Eslick bought a flower basket from Donaldson’s agricultural class at Sultan High School.
Eslick has an adult daughter and three grandchildren. Donaldson has four adult children and one grandchild.
Eslick has been the mayor of Sultan for five years. She is currently on her second term. She is also the founder and director of the nonprofit GROW Washington, which aims to help business development in the area.
Alejandro Dominguez: 425-339-3422; adominguez@heraldnet.com.
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