Erika Flanigan and Jon VanZile went on double dates with other people before they started dating.
They met as interns in fall 1993, but didn’t interact much until they went to the Detroit Symphony together around the holidays.
Erika had tickets and was trying to find someone to go with her. Jon said he didn’t really want to see it, but wanted to go with her.
“We were friends for so long,” Erika said. “By the time we were dating there was no, ‘so, what kind of food do you like, what kind of movies?’ We already completely knew each other, which made it easy to segway into dating.”
They started dating in April 1994 and didn’t tell people, but it was pretty obvious they were together, Jon said.
“We were inseparable once we started dating,” Jon said. “I’m sure it annoyed the other staff members.”
They were an unlikely couple, and many of their friends found it funny that they were dating.
At one point Jon told Erika he was going to marry a woman like her, but Erika snorted and said a person like her would never marry a person like him.
“We were really good friends, but it didn’t seem likely that we would maintain any long-term thing,” Erika said. “We had to meet in the middle.”
The relationship did not start off serious and it was supposed to have an expiration date because Jon had a job and one-way ticket to American Samoa.
But that didn’t happen. After a few months Jon returned to Michigan.
“He came back and we were like, ‘let’s get out of Michigan,’” Erika said. “It was winter.”
So they moved to New Orleans without jobs and lived in a hotel for a month before they found jobs and an apartment.
They then moved to South Florida and have been there ever since.
“Summer never ended,” Erika said. They have not experienced a winter since moving south in late 1994.
They both are the “black sheep” of their families, Erika said.
“We always joke we did everything backwards,” Erika said. “We had the child, bought the house, got married.”
They have two children Max, age 22, and Jake, age 12.
When they were at The State News, they didn’t realize just how much it was going to impact their lives, Jon said.
“I had no appreciation for how much it was going to shape my life,” Jon said. “You start, and you really don’t know that the thing that you’re starting that day as an intern is going to change the rest of your entire life. You’re going to meet your wife there, or your husband there, the person you’ll have kids with.
“People that you’re going to be in touch with 20 years from now. People that you’re going to work with. They’re going to give you work, you’re going to give them work. It’s this entire network. It was like you back into this life-changing experience.”
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