Once & Forever Co. — Museum of Us
Walk Down
Memory Lane
Who are these people? This wing tells the story itself.
The Date Sign
Two dates. Two totally different stories.
I planned this date. Not planned it a few months out — planned it when I was eleven years old. Before I knew who I'd marry, before any of this existed, I said this was the date. And it happened. It actually happened. Like, what are the chances of that?
Cut wood, set in acrylic. Clean and deliberate, because that's what this date was.
This one I did not plan. This is just the day we met. It happened the way life happens, no plan, no timeline, nothing orchestrated. It just occurred.
Written by hand, a little messy, a little scribbly. Because that's exactly what that day was.
One I mapped out at eleven years old. One just happened to me. Both of them got me here.
The Zoom Mirrors
Okay, this section is a big deal, so stay with me.
When lockdown hit, Spencer and I reconnected on Zoom, and I mean hours and hours, night after night, day after day. That's genuinely where we got close. Like, if you're wondering where our connection actually got built, it wasn't some big date, it was a screen, night after night, for months.
The mugs moment happened on Zoom. He asked me to be his girlfriend on Zoom. There is no Lani and Spencer without Zoom.
These two mirrors are standing in for that. Step into the footprints, one on each side, and look at each other the way we used to look at each other on that screen. Say hi.
The Invisible String Board
Before Spencer and I ever met, we were already connected. We just didn't know it yet.
His grandfather is from St. Croix. I'm from St. Thomas. Sister islands, U.S. Virgin Islands. Do you know how small those islands are? Do you know the chances of him meeting a girl from St. Thomas, falling in love with her, and marrying her, when his own grandfather is from St. Croix? I took him to the Virgin Islands for the first time, ever. But his family had been there the whole time.
His aunt is married to a man whose brother I've known since I was a baby.
Old photos. Faces we both knew, people from both our lives, long before either of us knew the other existed.
None of it was planned. It was just always there, waiting for us to notice.
The strings on this board are shaped into a heart around Lani and Spencer's names.The Boba Plushies
So this one is random, but it needed a place here.
Before Spencer and I were even dating, I had this little bubble tea business. This was during the pandemic, in Saint Thomas, in person, so most people couldn't exactly show up.
Spencer wasn't working a real job at the time either. He was volunteering full time, no income, nothing. And he still went and ordered a bunch of my straws. He couldn't come to any of the events. He just ordered them anyway.
I thought that was really sweet at the time. Like, genuinely kind, especially knowing he didn't have income to spare.
Then way later I found out something else. Him and one of his friends had a nickname for me back then. Boba tea. That's what they called me when they talked about me.
So yeah. Bubble tea has played a weirdly big role in this relationship. These plushies are here because of that. Because before there was an "us," there was a guy with no income buying straws from a girl he'd nicknamed boba tea.
You've reached the end of this wing
Every hall in this museum leads back to the same two people.
Once & Forever Co.