BALTIMORE, MD — This is not your typical love story where a boy meets a girl, they marry and live happily ever after.
No, this is a better love story.
Two hearts find each other later in life.
Sybil DiMaggio, simply had the magic touch of turning the life of George Durm around.
One question into my interview and three words into his first answer, you could feel the heartbreak.
From his lawyers' office downtown, "My mom got a second job to send me to Spaulding. I'm losing it."
At Archbishop Spaulding High School, he met Sybil.
You have Durm and DiMaggio separated by syllables.
Then, they had a 20-year gap in life.
George was serving in the Marines, living it up out in California.
But something brought him back. Maybe this Glen Burnie boy had to come home to his unfinished love.
"Sybil always haunted me," he said, "so I said [to myself] I should say hi." He'd been planning to head back to the West Coast.
George stood Sybil up twice for first dates.
"The third time, she wasn't having it. Standing on the front porch, she told me you're not doing this again."
Their first date was right there on that porch.
After a 311 cruise, George knew he was about to dock in her heart forever.
She proposed to him!
"You're my man, I'm going to marry you," she told him. "Have to tell my kids. It was fast."
Fast forward to that morning, their final sunrise.
"Fantastic day, got up, showered, breakfast, kissed her goodbye, and that was the last memory of her."
She should have been on the porch by four in the afternoon.
She should have been home preparing for her dad's birthday the next day.
By 7 p.m., George sent a text... "YOU OK?"
George said, "I just had a bad feeling. I turned to Google, and there it was."
While on the phone with the Maryland State Police, two in uniform came to his porch.
"You gotta be kidding me. I never wished for someone to be hurt so bad."
Devastated in trying to describe the love of his life, he describes Sybil in the present tense.
"She was my best friend."
I asked George if Sybil had visited him. I believe in that stuff.
He said he didn't believe it but knew for a fact Sybil was in the kitchen and walked by him one night.
As for George's life now, he had to move off that porch and now lives in Pennsylvania.
He has changed his ways. He has a renewed relationship with his mom and dad. Maybe Sybil's greatest work in life was saving George's.
Sybil's family wasn't the only one heartbroken and devastated following the 695 tragedy last March.
The Simmons family lost a father and son, Mahlon "Stick" Simmons II and Mahlon "MJ" Simmons III.
The Escobar family lost two brothers, Carlos and Jose.
The Ruiz family lost Rolando, the man who never let them go hungry.
