Formation — Tammela: Courtship, Wedding, Broadmoor, Bankruptcy
Formation — Tammela: Courtship, Wedding, Broadmoor, Bankruptcy
Early 1980 | Age ~24-25 | Things fell together really fast.
Too fast.
"We tossed rice, hopped in that old MG Midget and drove off into chaos — wild hopes and naive ambitions. Entropy and darkness lay ahead." — Daniel J. Comp, April 27, 2026
Daniel's Memory — Verbatim
Spoken April 27, 2026. Transcribed as delivered.
Tammela was a student at the UofC in Boulder. She had transferred from Westmont College, on her way to Wheaton in Illinois. She and I talked about mission, community development, and shared a faith in Christ. I cooked our first date - wheat germ, sesame encrusted rainbow trout and steamed broccoli with lemon juice. I picked this up long before from Graham Kerr - the Galloping Gourmet. I was a hit. We were 'in love.' We went cycling around the campus. We did bible studies together, and things fell together really fast. Too fast.
>
She missed her period, and suspected something was up. She went to Florida to visit relatives, and to wait for confirmation. A couple months went by before she called to tell me she was pregnant. I told her the proper thing to do was to marry. She agreed - that was proper and reasonable.
>
We put a quick wedding together and my step-parents actually attended for a day. It was at Idledale Church Ministry. In exchange for use of the location, I worked on cleaning it up and installing a carpet runner over the old wood flooring down the main isle.
>
We tossed rice, hopped in that old MG Midget and drove off into chaos - wild hopes and naive ambitions. Entropy and darkness lay ahead.
>
The night before the wedding I found myself rescuing Tammela and her bridesmaid with a broken brake hydraulic line - stranded after her bridal shower event in Denver. Our new apartment was in Cherry Creek. We didn't have mobile phones or weather apps back then. And foreign car parts were only available at junk yards. I found myself talking nicely to a mangy old German Shepherd guard dog after crawling over the barbwire topped fence to steal a replacement brake fitting at around midnight the night before the wedding.
>
We arrived at the Broadmoor exhausted but relieved. We had satisfied both families without terror by choosing the right thing. So we thought. The next morning I woke to the sound of a familiar horn. Showers had come through the Rockies and we had left the top off the MG. Water had shorted the horn out and there I was in the open air trying to silence our little squeaker - no longer just guests - we'd become an issue to the other guests.
>
We managed. I worked as a project manager for a Denver Construction Company - Sederstrom Somes. We were building new classrooms and chapel onto a church out east about 20 miles. It was good pay, and meaningful work. I thought it fitting that I study and craft a place of worship while getting my act together as a new father. Considering I had the worst of examples to follow, how much could go wrong, right?
>
Turns out Sederstrom Somes went bankrupt. I finished the project, but my name was on their records. They owed taxes and the IRS was looking into their records.
Sherpa's Reading
'Things fell together really fast. Too fast.'
Daniel names the speed himself, and the tone of the naming is not regret — it is accurate retrospective recognition. The courtship had all the right elements: shared faith, shared vocabulary (mission, community development), the long Sunday cycles to Calvary Chapel, the bible studies. The first date was the Graham Kerr formation applied with confidence and care — wheat germ, sesame-encrusted rainbow trout, steamed broccoli, lemon juice. He was a hit. They were in love.
The speed at which things moved after that is the formation record's recurring motif: the rapid construction of a home-environment in the absence of stable ground. The Navy apartment in Waukegan with Nancy, built in weeks and destroyed in a day. The cross-country trip in the MG Midget, decided in a week. And now: pregnancy confirmed by phone from Florida, proposal by the logic of propriety, quick wedding at a church he had to earn by installing the carpet runner.
'The proper thing to do was to marry.' The record receives this exactly as stated. It is a correct moral read of the situation by a man under contract to follow where he was led. Whether it was also what he wanted is not a question the record presses. He read the situation, gave the correct response, and delivered it.
The midnight rescue.
The night before his own wedding, Daniel crawled a barbed-wire fence in the dark, persuaded a German Shepherd to tolerate him, located a replacement brake hydraulic fitting in a junkyard, installed it, and delivered the bride and her bridesmaid from a Denver street to The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, arriving exhausted but intact. No mobile phones. No weather app. Foreign parts at junkyards only. Midnight.
The Hephaestian function — applied to a brake line the night before his wedding.
They arrived at The Broadmoor. Satisfied both families. Chose the right thing. So they thought.
The Broadmoor horn.
The MG Midget top was left down. Rocky Mountain showers came through the night. The horn shorted. At the Broadmoor — one of the most distinguished resort hotels in the American West — Daniel was in the open air before breakfast, trying to silence a small British car that had decided to announce itself to every other guest on the property.
'We'd become an issue to the other guests.' They managed. The record notes this without commentary. The MG managed. They managed. Managing is what this era runs on.
Sederstrom Somes.
The work was good — project manager, building new classrooms and a chapel, 20 miles east of Denver. Daniel found it meaningful to be constructing a place of worship while becoming a father. He completed the project. The company went bankrupt. His name was on their records. The IRS began investigating.
Third time: Daniel performs his contracted role correctly and is implicated in the institution's structural failure through no action of his own.
He noted it, as he notes these things: factually, without prolonged outrage. The pattern is visible now from the outside. It was not yet visible to him from the inside.
Then Tammela's water broke.
Gaps requiring Daniel's input:
- Idledale Church Ministry — the specific congregation or ministry affiliation?
- The Cherry Creek apartment — any detail about that living situation?
- The IRS investigation — how was this resolved?
- Graham Kerr / the Galloping Gourmet — when did Daniel first watch it, and
what specifically did he take from it beyond the rainbow trout recipe?
Enriched by Claude · Axial Refinement Sherpa (Formation Archivist) · MA5 Council