Last Updated on 06/09/2024 by Arun jain
Kimberly Lauren Stokes and Dexter Clay Mason didn’t meet until adulthood, but their paths could have crossed much earlier in life.
Both Ms. Stokes and Mr. Mason are from Detroit. Both were members of Jack and Jill of America, a social organization of black families. Both of their mothers, who are former co-workers, are members of Lynx, a nonprofit organization for black women. And both are members of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, known as the Divine Nine, which is historically made up of African-American fraternities and sororities.
Ms. Stokes, 32, is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority and a doctoral candidate in the counseling psychology program at Wayne State University in Detroit, where she also earned a master of arts in counseling psychology. He received a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in elementary education from Howard University.
Mr. Mason, 33, is a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity and executive director of Change Collective, a civic leadership development program in Washington started by former President Barack Obama. Mr. Mason holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, and a master’s degree in sports industry management from Georgetown University.
And yet, it wasn’t until an awkward encounter at Howard’s homecoming in 2013 that the two finally came face to face. Mr. Mason introduced himself at the tailgate event, but Ms. Stokes was forced to cut their exchange short.
“She was like, ‘I’m sorry, I have to go’,” Mr Mason said. Ms Stokes confirmed she “had to rush out to find the toilet.”
They did not see each other again for another three and a half years. This time sparks flew.
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After a stay on the East Coast, the two returned to their hometown. In January 2017, they saw each other at the North American International Auto Show in downtown Detroit. Mr. Mason began the conversation with Ms. Stokes by saying, “I was just talking to my brother, and I heard you’re back home.”
Mrs. Stokes was confused but intrigued. “I was like ‘Who is he talking about?'”
The brother in question was actually Mrs. Stokes’ father, Louis Charles Stokes, who had joined Kappa Alpha Psi through the Detroit alumni chapter.
They exchanged numbers at an auto show, but it took a few months and encouragement from one of Mr. Mason’s close friends (who asked Mr. Mason, “’What’s wrong with you?’”) before he asked Mrs. Stokes. .
That April, they went on their first date at the Detroit Athletic Club. They spent hours discussing “generational blessings,” which Mr. Mason described as the couple’s shared belief that generations before them planted the seeds and laid the foundation for their success. After dinner, they went to chicken – a Detroit pastime that involved throwing a football at a bowling pin.
Their first date turned into a marriage. They bond over family values and the realization that they are both products of the Great Migration, in which millions of black people moved from the South to the North, Midwest, and West in the first half of the 20th century. They also shared a love of travel, connected for four and attended 20 weddings together. The two described their budding romance as “only God can.”
In November 2022, Mr. Mason invited Ms. Stokes to what he described as a “board members-only special event” at the Detroit Opera House. The grand lobby was decorated with life-size photos of the couple. As they walked upstairs, a singer performed an a cappella version of John Legend’s “All of Me.” As the song ended, Mr. Mason proposed in front of 75 loved ones.
On August 24, the couple were married in front of 325 guests at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit, where Ms Stokes’ parents were married in 1983. The Rev. Senior Pastor of Hope United Methodist Church in Southfield, Mich. B. Kevin Smalls. ., with Portia Lockett, Mrs. Stokes’ sorority sister and a close friend of Mr. Mason’s mother, led the ceremony, participated.
The couple followed the African American tradition of jumping the broom. His broom was adorned with brooches of the women in his life who represented the qualities that would serve as the foundation for his marriage: compassion, wisdom, faith, creativity and courage.
After the ceremony, the newlyweds danced at their reception at the Henry Hotel in Dearborn, Mich. The couple’s sorority and brotherhood love songs were sung, as is customary at weddings of members of the Divine Nine.
“One thing that has stuck out to me about Dexter is that he is a visionary,” Ms. Stokes said. “He has a real soul and a vision that he’s passionate about.”
“We’re definitely visionaries,” Mr. Mason added. “Together.”
Post Two souls in the same orbit eventually collide appeared first New York Times.