Jacqueline Hart Gibson, Gilpin County. Bronx born, south Florida raised, Rachel Vigo wasn’t looking for love when it swept her off her feet in 1996. Her time was occupied with college, serving and bartending at a local Chili’s, bible school, helping her family and, on rare occasions, taking a brief time out from her hectic schedule for fun with friends. It was during one of these fleeting moments of reprieve, that Rachel met “her Superman.” 

Chris Latham was a bartender at a south Florida pub, in ‘96. Rachel described him as the kind of man her parents had warned her about. A tattooed, fun-loving bartender wasn’t her family’s idea of significant other material. But Rachel saw past the stereotypes she had been taught. “There was just something about him that intrigued me. He wasn’t like other boys I had dated and grown up with.” Rachel shared.

Chris says it was Rachel’s innocence, vibrance, smile for days and most importantly her dimples, that caught his attention. He says, “She stole my heart at first glance.” 

Rachel and a friend from Chili’s went into the pub Chris worked in, just down the street from where Rachel worked. Although Rachel was attracted to Chris, she was hesitant at first. Her friend, Nicole, urged her to give Chris a chance, and in the end, Rachel says, “His kind eyes and warm heart,” convinced her. She allowed Chris to take her on a daytime date. 

“We met at the local mall. I still lived at home and I didn’t just bring people over to my house.” Rachel says during their first date, Chris won her over. “I laughed so hard I cried, and I felt like I had known him my entire life. I’m pretty sure that day, I fell in love.” 

The couple comes from significantly different backgrounds. Rachel was shocked to hear Chris call his Mom by her first name, Mary, which is unheard of in her conservative family.  Chris’s family moved almost every year, as his mother was in the Navy. The oldest of four children, Chris often helped his parents out by caring for his younger siblings when they were working. Rachel’s family was more traditional. Her parents have been together for forty years, while Chris’s parents are divorced and are now married to other people. Both of their families were Catholic, but Chris’s family didn’t practice religion as rigorously as Rachel’s family did. Rachel says, “Even though we grew up so differently, we were still the same. He is the yin to my yang.”

Chris and Rachel soon became an inseparable pair. Chris convinced Rachel to work with him at the bar in south beach. “What an experience that was!” Rachel says. When that bar closed, the couple moved to West Palm Beach and continued to work together in the nightclub industry. 

In 2005, a record breaking year for Atlantic hurricanes, there were three category five hurricanes in their area. By then Chris, who had moved from Seattle to Florida following a brief and difficult marriage and divorce, had been in Florida for ten years. Rachel could see he was exhausted by the increasingly extreme weather. “We were tired of rebuilding.” Rachel recalled. “Our neighborhood was so flooded we would take jet skis to the grocery store. There was no way to get gas because the tankers couldn’t get through the flood waters to the gas stations.” 

Chris and Rachel left West Palm Beach with what they could fit in their cars and drove to Orlando. “When we got there we decided to flip a coin,” Rachel says. “Heads for Seattle, and tails for Boulder.” They flipped tails and moved to Boulder, where they continued to work in the bar/restaurant industry and purchased a condo together. 

In 2018, the couple started to struggle in their relationship, and sold the condo. Rachel explained they hit a fork in the road, and she saw it as a do or die moment as they signed the papers for the sale. She says she asked Chris, “Is this it?” Neither of them were sure ending the partnership they had shared for over twenty years was what they wanted. The couple decided they would take a road trip. The trip would either be about closure, or about starting over. 

Their three month road trip of healing took them through Arizona, California, Washington, and all over the area. Chris says, “It was an adventure. We stayed in four star hotels and campgrounds.” Rachel says, “That’s us right there. He always says, “life is an adventure.” Somewhere between the $50 helicopter rides they spontaneously took, white water rafting, and flipping coins to choose the next direction, the two realized closing the door on the past was a good idea, but they wanted to go forward together. 

Chris and Rachel moved to Gilpin county, which they both describe as being “home,” to start their lives together anew. They work together at Eldora. Chris says of Gilpin that he loves, “the snow, relaxing, the lack of stop lights, the dirt roads, and getting away from the chaos in Boulder. I love Gilpin County because although everyone is willing to help each other out, everyone gives each other their personal space.” Rachel says they have had, “Phenomenal experiences here,” and she appreciates the uniquely honest character of the people they have met in Gilpin. 

Chris and Rachel will celebrate their 24th Valentine’s Day together this year.

(Originally published in the February 13, 2020, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)