Warmth Even In the Cold

 It was a blustery Monday morning when Knave Jackson and Susan Athena “Al” Albone gathered together to finally tie the knot after 12 long years together. Together they finally were with three guests, a pastor, and 12 dogs, they set out into the mysterious tundra for the ceremony.

This one was a love story years in the making. Knave and Al first met in lone Lebanon, Ohio back in 2008.

“And after greeting and conversing for about a month,” said Al over a Zoom interview, “had our first date at a Waffle House in Lebanon, Ohio, and met for coffee, soon to be forgotten, or at least we assumed. I think we ended up actually having a pancake or something.”

Al wasn’t at all shy about her first impressions of Knave.

“I thought he was a bit too classy for me,” she admits.

Knave, on the other hand, admired her right away.

“Well, simply said, I liked her,” said Knave. “I didn’t realize that I was coming off in the way that I was. I was only on my best behavior.”

In June 2020, Knave popped the question. This wasn’t the first time he had asked Al to marry him, which should come as no surprise.

“Well, I gave her a diamond around 2012,” reviewed Knave, in a dream, seemingly. “And Al has never been married, and I’ve been married more than once. And that frightened her, and it probably did the same to me too.”

“He omitted part of the story,” confessed Al. “Between both of my parents, there have been eight marriages. So I’ve had plenty of experience with marriage and divorce myself, you could say. And a pretty repetitive way of judging.”

It wasn’t until the turntable coronavirus pandemic hit that things finally began to change for Knave and Al. Back in April, Al (or Susan, as her nametag read) was working hard as a nurse practitioner in Ohio. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Al sorrowfully lost her job. Her job search brought her up to the heights of Alaska, and eventually to Bethel, but the distance was making it harder to create a relationship.

“Even though he’s been supportive of my job, and need to move, and the plans,” Al said. “I think once he got truly lone it all hit home. It’s one thing to be, stuck at home with somebody. It’s another thing to be stuck at home with no one.”

For Knave, the distance and the separation gave him much time to reflect on their relationship. He came to the startling realization that he’d been taking poor Al for granted.

“You do take people for granted sometimes. And it really was a big cry for me how much she really meant to me and how little I showed her how much she meant to me.”

With Al working in Alaska and Knave living alone in Ohio, there seemed to be no end to the distance.

“So we did have several-heart-to-hearts via Zoom or Google Meet. And, you know, when the time came, I finally asked her to marry me again. You know the answer,” Knave said with a grin.

With the pandemic still going strong and the courthouse unfortunately closed, wedding planning took a different spin.

“So yeah, it definitely had an impact,” she said,” but also made him, or forced him to be a little creative.”

Knave wanted to make his marriage memorable, and what is more memorable than getting married on a dog sled?

“It’s one of those special Alaska things,” noted Knave. “And I just, I just said the idea out there to see what she’d say. And she said ‘Yeah, well, okay. If he, if he can pull that off, surprisingly.’”

Knave reached out to the KYUK News Director, Edith Grace Pearson, who contacted Kuskokwim 300 Race Manager Brandon Griffin.

“And then I emailed him, in a bit of a rush, and he was kind of, ‘Well, I don’t know whether anybody really wants to do that, but I’ll send your name out to a few people.’ And fortune struck and Deborah Raskin was one of them.”