BY AJ TRAGER
WATERFORD – After many years together, Indiana farm girl and Between the Lines sales rep Ann Cox and Deb Dysert, also known as Reverend Dysert from the Metropolitan Community Church of Detroit, tied the knot and married before 220 of their most beloved friends and family.
They met 25 years ago and attended the same church. The year they met, Cox lived on a farm in Cambridge City, Indiana and Dysert in Indianapolis. But they would attend the same service and after awhile got to know one another.
Ten years after getting together, Dysert moved to Michigan to be a pastor in Hazel Park. Cox, who generally wasn't as interested in attending faith services as much as Dysert, wanted to spend some more time taking care of her mother in Indiana. A year and a half later she followed Dysert to Metro Detroit.
Everyone knows that relationships shift and evolve throughout the years. Over the course of their love, Cox says that she has become "easier to get along with."
"We don't argue about hardly anything anymore," Cox said.
Even though she lived an out life in Michigan, Cox did not come out to her family until she called to invite them to the wedding. It was going to be a tough conversation – one that she had been putting off for quite some time.
"We've been together all this time, but I had never talked to my family about it," Cox told BTL. "She (Dysert) wanted me to invite my family, so I said, 'OK.' I called them up and spoke to my brother and I said, 'Deb and I are getting married on this date, and I'd like you to be there.'"
Dysert came out to her family while she was in college and provided a lot of support to Cox who had some reservations about calling her family. With the support of her bride-to-be, Cox then called her sister who was not surprised to hear the news and told her that she had been waiting for Cox to tell her about the significance of Dysert in her life for quite some time. Cox thought that her sister would be more negative than her brother but that was not the case.
"It made it worth all the money that we spent. It really was cool because all this time I really have not talked to my family about it, because I didn't want to go through any shit with anybody. And it worked out," Cox said.
Much to her surprise, Cox's brother attended her wedding held Oct. 24 at the Pontiac Waterford Elks Lodge. Even more significant than his arrival, he stood in her wedding party and even gave a toast.
"My favorite part of the wedding was when my brother said what he said. He said, 'Bub, I don't care what you do. I love you,'" Cox recounted.
The wedding had a life of it's own, Cox explained. After the ceremony was over, guests seemed to flock to the wedding table in waves to congratulate, take a picture with and even sing for the lovebirds. The dance floor was packed with community members like Jerry Peterson, executive director of Ruth Ellis Center, and Rev. Roland Stringfellow of MCCD.
"It was really, really nice. I thought that we had a very eclectic group of people. Deb's principal at school told her that it was the best wedding she had ever been to," Cox said.
Instead of hyphenating their last names, Dysert is planning on changing her surname to Cox. They took their honeymoon in Florida.
