BY JE’DON HOLLOWAY-TALLEY
Birmingham Times special
“You Had Me at Hello” underlines married couples and the love that connects them. If you would like to be considered for a future Hello column or if you know someone, please send your nominations to Barnett Wright bwright@birminghamtimes.com. Include the couple’s name, contact number (s) and what makes their love story unique.
CORTICE AND AYDRIAN MILES
live: McCalla
Married: August 15, 1998
Met: During puberty in the late 1980s by her mothers who worked together at South Central Bell [Bell South]who originally wanted Aydrian and Cortice’s younger sister Shaundrece to be playmates.
“They thought we would be good company for each other, since we were both girls and about the same age, and that in the summer we would have fun sleeping together. I didn’t know she had a cute older brother … when Cortice first saw me, he asked to come over to our house to hang out with my older brother Walter, but he actually came to see me ” Aydrian laughed.
After high school, Cortice [West End High School grad] went to the US Army and lived at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Aydrian [McAdory High School grad] moved to Jacksonville to attend college at Jacksonville State University. The old friends would hang out on house calls when they were both in town at the same time.
“I had always liked Aydrian and knew that I could always call her and talk to her because we were like ‘friends-friends’ and the more I saw her when I got home, the more I liked her and she wanted too. ” [date her]”Said Cortice.
First date: December 23, 1995 at the Ichiban Japanese restaurant in Hoover.
“I was still in college, home for the holidays and he was on vacation and he took me to this Japanese restaurant … and after dinner he took me to the Galleria Mall and a jewelry store and tried to make myself big To behave, spend money because he was in the military, got his small paycheck and told me to go and pick what I want. “I said no, that’s fine, I’m not choosing anything because we are not doing anything,” said Aydrian.
“I just wanted to get into debt to get it,” said Cortice. “I burned that [credit card]so I was hoping [whatever she picked] would be cheap, ”he laughed. Cortice was grateful that Aydrian passed the offer on.
The turn: Summer 1997. “I went to the Reserve Officer Training Corps” [ROTC] Camp in Fort this summer. Campbell, Kentucky … We dated other people when I was in college and he was in the military. “And since he was in the military, I asked him to give me some insight and information because I was considering going into the army, and he tried to talk me out of it … He came to JSU [Jacksonville State University] When I got ready to go to camp to see myself and when I got back from camp we started dating seriously. He often went to JSU to see me, ”said Aydrian.
“I knew I really liked Aydrian and had spoken to my mother about her. “I always stopped by JSU first when I came home on the way to Birmingham. I knew I loved her and wanted to be with her. My plan was to have kids and I didn’t want them to travel around the military and have this life, so I finally got out and came back home and started over. “
The application: August 1997, in Cortice’s red Camaro in front of Aydrian’s childhood home in Forestdale.
“I had worked with my mother to find a ring for Aydrian and that meant I was late to pick her up for dinner… After dinner we stopped again… [Aydrian’s] Parental home, and I didn’t do it traditionally, I didn’t ask your father or mother for their blessing, I wanted to be excited, “said Cortice. “And when I took the ring out, she had that strange look on her face, but [I proceeded] and used the line Martin used on Gina when he suggested [in the 90s’ sitcom ‘Martin’] and said ‘I don’t know where I’ll be in this life, but I don’t want to be there without you’. And I noticed that she still had that look on her face, and it made me nervous. . . I [switched my tone and] said ‘I won’t keep asking you about it, will you marry me?’ “
Cortice didn’t immediately get a “yes”.
“He had spoken to me about wedding things, rings, and suggestions, and I was in my senior year of college and said I wanted to get married someday, but sometime after college,” Aydrian said. “When he pulled the ring out, the reason I made it look strange was because I said to myself, ‘I thought I told him I wanted to wait until I left college.’ I thought about it for a moment and said that I really love him, he looks good, he treats me with respect, he is good to me and he always makes me feel safe and secure. What more could I ask of a man? So I said yes.
The wedding: In Bessemer at the New Bethlehem Baptist Church, presided over by Reverend William H. Walker. Their colors were peach, cream, and silver.
Most memorable for the bride was the wedding on a rainy day, and her parents were stuck on the highway. “We had a certain amount of time booked for church and the start time was delayed because I wouldn’t start the wedding without my parents being present,” Aydrian said. “And the wedding planner kept coming back to the bridal room and trying to get me to start the wedding. . . “But how should I walk down the aisle without my papa?”
Most memorable for the groom was not being able to check into a hotel room that he had booked two weeks before the wedding.
“My friend Willie Earl Hall and I wanted to check into the room [the morning of] the wedding and when I got there, her [the hotel staff] said they didn’t have a room for me and that everything was booked, ”said Cortice. “I walked back and forth with them until something happened to them because I had to show a receipt for it and told them I would take my bride there that evening. They sent us to another hotel that was bigger and nicer …
The couple spent the weekend at the Tutwiler Hotel in downtown Birmingham on their honeymoon.
Words of wisdom: “Keeping Jesus Christ and faith in God in your life must be the foundation of any relationship because Jesus will support you in these difficult times because it will not always be rosy. We’re not perfect, we have flaws, but at the end of the day your love and faith in Jesus Christ should bring you back to the center of your relationship. “
“We hack out things that teach you different things about the other person, and we get out better because then we reveal the things that bother us [one another and] We can fix what needs to be fixed. We have been trying for 23 years, we are a real partnership, ”said Cortice.
Happily ever after: The Miles have three sons: Cortice II, 23, Christian, 16, Cayden, 13, and nephew Christopher 9, who they raise.
Aydrian, 44, is from McCalla and is a graduate of McAdory High School. She attended Jacksonville State University [Jacksonville, Ala.] where she received a bachelor’s degree in biology, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham [UAB] where she earned a Masters in Clinical Laboratory Science. Aydrian works as a clinical laboratory scientist and infection prevention expert at the UAB Student Clinic.
Cortice, 46, is a West End graduate of West End High School. He attended the University of Alabama in Birmingham [UAB] There he earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and a master’s degree in public administration. Cortice is a lieutenant in the Bessemer Police Department.
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