Love on the Lawn: A UVA Couple Shares Four Decades Together
Wayne Cozart: Okay, you want to start or you want me to?
Pat Lampkin: You go ahead. I鈥檒l correct you.
Wayne Cozart: 1979 when we got here was really the old University.
Pat Lampkin: Doors weren鈥檛 locked, there were no signs. It was also of a place that had values and culture and an identity. And the best part of it was that it was allowed to change.
Wayne Cozart: Both Pat and I came in 1979, she was working for housing. I was working in the dean of students office and she would walk by and so I would say hello to her.
Pat Lampkin: We didn鈥檛 necessarily like each other.
Wayne Cozart: I was going to say that.
Pat Lampkin: Okay.
Wayne Cozart: Six years later, I decided to take her out on a date.
Pat Lampkin: That was our only date.
Wayne Cozart: That鈥檚 right.
Wayne Cozart: We were married on Halloween because the chapel was available and therefore our anniversary is trick or treating on the Lawn. Living in Pavilions for for 19 years was an absolute joy.
Pat Lampkin: We experienced a lot of things together when there weren鈥檛 people around, both in the feeling of the space and the feeling for each other and you knew it was very special.
Wayne Cozart: If we鈥檝e never had a honeymoon, and we can鈥檛 celebrate our anniversary every year, then you rely on moments in order to build and maintain a relationship.
Pat Lampkin: I mean, it鈥檚 changed our lives. Right? Right. I do feel incredibly lucky that we鈥檝e had a pretty rich life.
Wayne Cozart: Yeah, absolutely.
