‘Accidental’ meeting leads to courtship, marriage
It was a dark and rainy afternoon in early spring 2003 on the wet and curvy highway between Clark Fork, Idaho, and Noxon, Mont. As a semitruck approached, a car pulled into Jessica Becker’s lane in an attempt to pass the truck, and, narrowly missing her car, flew off the road into the ditch. Becker, driving the 70 mph speed limit, swerved her car in the opposite direction. It rolled half a dozen times, dove over a 40-foot embankment and landed upside down, wedged between pine trees and a ditch wall. It was the luckiest day of her life.
Amazingly, the driver of the oncoming car was unscathed. She climbed out of her car, scooped her baby from his car seat and, standing beside her upended vehicle, drenched to the bone with baby in her arms, attracted the attention of Nathan Herbig, who was driving home from high school.
“She was hysterical but unhurt,” Nathan says. “I drove her to a gas station down the road, and after she calmed down, she told me that there had been another vehicle involved.”
Nathan drove back to the scene of the accident to find Jessica, dirty, soaking wet and angry, but also unhurt, climbing up the muddy embankment with the help of a UPS deliveryman.
“I was trapped in the car but knew I was OK, so I was handing all this stuff out the car window to the UPS man: my trumpet, my CDs, and my dress and shoes for the Junior Miss pageant. He just threw them on the ground, and I was so angry. But when I got up to the highway, Nathan was there. He opened his arms to hug me and then I burst into tears.”
The two high school students had seen each other at school but were unacquainted. Jessica, one of 12 juniors at Clark Fork High School, made the 28-mile trip to Noxon every day for German class, which was not offered at Clark Fork. Nathan, one of 27 seniors at Noxon High School, had special permission to leave school early each day for work release. After being home-schooled through eighth grade, he had enrolled in public high school and worked all four years for some former neighbors, an elderly couple with a small manufacturing company. After four or five hours of work each day, he drove back to Libby, Mont., for baseball practice.
Nathan graduated from high school in 2003 and left home to attend Miles Community College in Miles City, Mont., where he played baseball and eventually earned his A.A. degree. He then transferred to Montana State University Billings, where he’s playing baseball, majoring in physical education and minoring in coaching.
Jessica graduated from Clark Fork High School and in December will earn her Associate of Arts with an emphasis in graphic design at North Idaho College.
Jessica’s birthday falls around Thanksgiving each year, and Nathan always returned home for the holiday. Last year, he had only one day to pull off a creative proposal of marriage. It started with Nathan returning a hunting rifle to Jessica’s dad and at the same time asking him for her hand in marriage. Upon receiving parental consent, Nathan went into the family home and filled Jessica’s room with three dozen yellow roses and the contents of two bags of rose petals. He lit dozens of candles and turned out all the lights in the house.
When Jessica returned, she thought someone had died. Nathan was sitting on the sofa with a strange look on his face. He’d written a “Will you marry me?” note and laid it on the floor of the room, but Jessica says, “My room was so messy, I didn’t even notice it.” When Nathan finally pointed it out, she turned around to find him holding out a diamond engagement ring. “Are you serious?” she asked. “Can I take that as a ‘Yes’?” Nathan responded.
The wedding took place in Phippeny Park in Coeur d’Alene one month ago.
Jessica says, “Everything was absolutely perfect except the baker tripped on a curb and dropped our wedding cake an hour before the wedding. Somehow they salvaged it.”
The couple recently returned from a honeymoon in Hawaii.The high point was procuring a fresh coconut from a man who’d just chopped down a coconut tree. Nathan soaked the fruit in the hotel bathtub overnight, drilled holes in the husk with a hunting knife he’d bought at a Honolulu flea market, and sucked the coconut milk out with a straw he fashioned from a Q-tip.
After being separated geographically for most of their courtship, the couple has chosen to live in Coeur d’Alene together this fall semester while Jessica finishes her degree. They will return to Billings after the holidays, where Jessica will work while Nathan finishes his bachelor’s degree. Nathan has a 90 mph fast ball and hopes to play professional baseball.
Nathan and Jessica Herbig are beginning their happily ever after, just heading out on the highway of life after their “accidental” meeting.