This may be the “feel good” story of the year. Not a word is
fiction. From where he sits even today, Shakespeare is writing the sonnet. It’s
about the time Al and Ann Simpson played cupid.
Where’d they shoot their arrows? At the hearts of an
unlikely couple. Their aim was dead-on. Arthur Middleton is a South Carolinian;
Ann Sale a New Yorker by way of West Virginia.
Studying wolves, elk, and bears connected Middleton to
Wyoming. Middleton connected Anna. Alone they are intriguing. Together they are
captivating. Dr. Middleton is a research scientist at the Yale School of
Forestry and Environmental Science. Dr. Middleton once left college momentarily
to travel to England to become a falconer. Later he returned, eventually earning
a doctorate in ecology from the University of Wyoming. Anna attended Stanford
before finding herself a radio reporter in New York City.
Anna and Arthur met at a Fourth of July party hosted by Matt
Lieber, owner of a company producing Brooklyn podcasts. Long story short, it
was love at first sight. Though, the Simpsons couldn’t have played Cupid if it
had lasted. It didn’t.
Over the next couple of years, Arthur squeezed in the
completion of his dissertation and some fieldwork in South America. Anna roamed
the country reporting on the 2012 Presidential contest. Often they went as much
as six weeks without seeing one another. A weekend here, a day or so there.
Then came the break-up. As Anna described it for the New
York Times, she asked him, “Are we buying a couch for our living room,
something that we are investing in together, or am I buying a couch that is
mine?” Arthur gave the wrong answer. He was outta there.
His heart was broken. He wanted another chance. He called
and texted and flew to New York trying to make up. Didn’t happen. He brooded. Then
he remembered the award ceremony.
Dr. Middleton was scheduled to receive an important award; something
called the Camp Monaco Prize, for his study of elk in Wyoming. The ceremony was
set for Cody. Cody, Wyoming? Isn’t that where former Senator Al Simpson lives?
Dr. Middleton didn’t know Al; had never met him. But somehow he knew Al could
save him from his broken heart.
Arthur wrote Al. Asked if he could help him get back the
love of his life. He wanted Al to call Anna. He told the newspaper, “I decided
if you want something so badly and you are not willing to humiliate yourself,
get down on your knees in front of everybody, then what’s wrong with you?”
Al was inclined to ignore the letter. It was too weird. Ann
Simpson told him he couldn’t blithely ignore a lovesick man who’s willing to
risk embarrassment to seek Simpson’s help.
Al called Anna. Left a voice message. “Hello, this is former
Senator Al Simpson. Could you please call me in Cody, Wyoming.” Anna listened.
She’d never heard of Al. Was this a prank? What the heck? She returned the
call.
Ann Simpson and her husband talked long distance to the
woman they’d never met about a man they’d never met about how deeply in love he
was with her. Al asked her, “What do you have to lose?” Come to Cody. Be there
when Arthur receives his award. If you still don’t want to get back together,
go home contentedly.
Anna Sale came to Wyoming. She went to the award dinner with
Arthur Middleton. Later they talked as they hiked. Love rekindled. Cupid hit
the target.
They were married in Cody on August 15. The ebullient
Simpsons watched with their long, loving marriage a testament to how good it
can be.
“I can’t believe how the hell I got into this,” Al told the
New York Times in his inimitable way. “He (Dr. Middleton) realized he’d been
out there messing around with the elk when he could have been messing around
with Anna.”
Ann and Al Simpson. Cupid. You gotta love Wyoming.
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