When Mark and Monika Bauman became lab partners at Anne Arundel Community College in 1987, the pre-nursing program was tough, and they were focused on making the grade.
She was fresh out of high school.
He was working on a second career.
“He came up and he just said, ‘I’m Mark. Do you happen to have a partner yet?’” she said. “I said, ‘No, I don’t. Have a seat.’ And we just connected very well.”
Mark, who was in a committed relationship and had a young son, noticed something about Monika.
“I’m not going to lie,” he said. “I was attracted to her, both physically and from our shared experiences.”
And that’s how their 30-year love of their careers started. Their romantic relationship developed later because the two lost contact when Mark transferred to the University of Maryland’s nursing school.
He was a year ahead of Monika in the program and she wanted to keep in touch for professional purposes.
“I looked up to him. At one point, when I was getting ready to finish my last semester, I actually called him,” she said. “I pulled up the old phone number I had. And it was no longer active. I was just looking for advice.”
There was no texting, direct messaging him or contacting him over social media back then. Mark was gone.
But he never forgot about her, too.
In 1990, Mark got a position as a registered nurse at the University of Maryland Medical Center in downtown Baltimore. One day in February around Valentine’s Day, he decided to get some lunch across the street from the nursing school.
Mark, who rarely left the hospital for lunch, strolled over to the student union cafeteria.
He instantly recognized Monika sitting at a table with a classmate.
Mark needed to act fast. His lunch break was only 30 minutes.
“I’m on the clock and I walked over to her and say, ‘Hey, remember me?’” he said. “I didn’t have a lot of time. But I ended the conversation with, ‘It’s really nice to see you again. Can I get your phone number?’ It was very serendipitous.”
He left with Monika’s phone number, after assuring her that his previous relationship had ended.
“I looked at him strangely because it took me aback. I knew he was married before,” she told WTOP. “He said, ‘Oh, actually that situation has changed.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, yeah!’ And I whipped out my pen and didn’t look back after that.”
A few months later, she started working at the same hospital, in pediatric and obstetric care. The next year, they got married.
Mark and Monika have three adult children and several graduate degrees altogether.
This year they will mark 30 years working at the University of Maryland Medical Center together, albeit in different departments where many of their co-workers don’t know they’re married.
“We do know the same people,” said Monika, who is a director of nursing for women’s and children’s health. “I’ll run into someone, and they’ll see us together and put it together. And they may have known us for a very long time, but in different capacities.”
The couple says one long-standing rule helps them continue their passion for each other and their dedication to their patients: Keep work at work.
“There’s a healthy balance. You can spend five minutes talking about work,” said, Mark, who is a senior clinical nurse educator. “I have my stressors dealing with patients and she has hers. But at dinner, let’s talk about something unrelated.”
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