WHS Sweethearts "Double" Their Valentine's Day Every Year

For Westfield natives Ellie and Michael Mroz, Valentine's Day is twice as meaningful and half as expensive. What's their secret? This happily married couple celebrates their "own" holiday ….fourteen days after the 14th.

February 28th is the day the Mroz's coined "Double Valentine's Day." And there is a twelve-year love story behind it that dates back to their days at Westfield High School.

 "The first day of school, freshman year of high school, Mike was the first person I saw when I walked into the building," said Ellie, adding they first met two years prior at the seventh grade Night Place dance sponsored by the Recreation Department.

"Right away we remembered each other. He hung out with me by my locker on the first day of school."

Less than a month later, they started dating at Festi-fall.

"She had a yellow dump truck in her closet with all the names of the boys that she dumped," said Mike. "I made sure I destroyed the dump truck so I was never in it."

It must have worked. Their story reads like a fairytale. He became captain of the WHS Football team. She was a dancer. "Every day after that first day, Mike would meet me at my locker before I had second period English."

"She was the hottest girl in our grade," said Mike. "As soon as I saw her, I knew we were going to get married. We just clicked."

But just like every great love story, this one, too, had its ups and downs. Ellie and Mike broke up twice in high school, once sophomore year and again through junior year. 

"He broke up with me at Vicki's Diner …and I can still not go back there," said Ellie. "I can't sit at that table."

And just like every great love story, mistakes happen. 

"All through high school, something would always happen on Valentine's Day," said Ellie. "He would forget. Or when all the other girls were getting flowers from their boyfriends, I got a Swiss army knife." (Mike: "It's got a pen in it. It's awesome.")

"Senior year, when he had to work on Valentine's Day, he forgot," said Ellie. "I was so disappointed."

The disappointment didn't last long. "Two weeks later, on the 28th …it was the middle of the day and we used to always meet in the science wing of the high school," she said. "I walk up the stairs and he's standing with a huge bouquet of flowers. He said 'you better not have any plans after school …I have an adventure planned."

"We got in the car after school…went to the city …he bought tickets to "Stomp" and we went to the 2nd Avenue Deli. It was an awesome, unexpected, romantic day."

So why February 28th? It's "Double Valentine's Day" of course.

"Every year after, we celebrated Double Valentine's Day because it was so much more special," said Ellie. "We do nothing on the 14th."

And Mike added, "I don't forget the 28th. We don't need dinner reservations. All the holiday cards are half off. All the benefits I didn't even realize," he laughed.

Laughing is something this couple agrees they do a lot of. "We grew up together so we understand each other so well," said Ellie. "We genuinely like being together. We never get sick of each other."

"Where I lack, Ellie exceeds. And where Ellie lacks, I exceed," said Mike.

Added Ellie, "we have the same values and ideals. We have the same goals."

And their goals have already brought them big successes. After high school, Mike got a football scholarship to Indiana's Valparaiso University, a Division One school. Ellie went to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

The separation, they said, was not easy. "It was brutal," said Mike.

"We visited each other every other month," said Ellie. "We both had opportunities that were too good to pass up. Mike really convinced me that we could do it."

They stayed together all through college. "It is rare…I know," admitted Ellie. Their mutual love and respect kept them together.

"My favorite things about Ellie," Mike said, "she's beautiful and pretty and smart and picks up after me where I lack."

"I love his spontaneity and his unconditional love," said Ellie.

One year after college graduation, June 27, 2006, this happy couple's future was sealed when they got engaged.

"I ordered some dinner …Ellie's favorite dinner …laid some rose pedals down on the floor, waited for her to come home," said Mike. "There were candles and music. She walked in and was like 'what's going on?' and then I proposed."

"Neither of us ate dinner," he assured. "After Ellie screamed for like twenty minutes, she finally said yes. We invited our families over to celebrate with champagne."

A few months later, the couple bought their first house in Fanwood. On May 26, 2007, eleven months after they were engaged, they were married on Long Beach Island by Ellie's dad and a public official.   

And while the romance continued, the story took an unexpected turn. Five months after their wedding, Ellie was diagnosed with a form of cancer called Hodgkins Lymphoma.

"It was tough," said Mike, who stayed positive. "I knew Ellie was strong and she would get through it and we'd continue our life together."

"He had that point of view the whole time which made it easier for me," said Ellie.

"It was a hurdle," added Mike. And it was a hurdle they bounded right over.

Ellie is now cancer-free and it looks like many happy endings are in store for this happy couple.

They have their first "child" …their four-year-old chocolate lab, Bauer. Although Mike did say that human children are in the "near" future. "Three's a good number." 

Mike has his own construction and energy consulting companies: Michael Robert Construction and Green Energy Improvements.

Ellie is vice president of operations for One Year For Cancer (OYFC) , a non-profit group which places people to work within the cancer community. She also does public relations and marketing for REDCO Engineering and Construction Corporation. Ellie is also a former Spanish teacher at Westfield High School.

 And they hope to move back to Westfield one day, right where their story started.

As for the rest of their dreams …Ellie summed it up. "We're living it."

Editor's Note: This is the first part of a four part Valentine's Weekend series on couples in Westfield.