My best friend, Jamie, and I were walking down to the beach at Manursing Island Club in the summer of 1998 when I noticed Joe. “That guy is really cute,” I whispered to Jamie.
Unfortunately, he was in a relationship already. We remained friends for four years, even visiting each other at college in Pennsylvania (he was at Bucknell and I was at Gettysburg). Each of us dated other people, but remained friends. I loved how funny he was, always making jokes and just being silly. He was very easy to spend time with.
In December 2001, we hung out over our winter break and we were out with friends for his 22nd birthday on Jan 10, 2002. At midnight (turning to the day of his birthday), I kissed him. We have been together ever since.
We dated from January ’02 to February ’07, when he proposed to me on Valentine’s Day. We married on June 14, 2008. We now have three amazing children: Joe, 13; Sammie, 10, and Mason, 5.
We both grew up in Rye and we lived there until we bought our first home in Harrison in 2016. I am a labor and delivery nurse at Greenwich Hospital and Joe practiced law for 12 years, before leaving to take over the family liquor business, Vaccaro’s Wines & Spirits, in Port Chester.
—Jackie Licare (married to Joe)
