In May of 1995, James was attending MTSU in Murfreesboro, TN. Deta was finishing up her senior year of high school at Coffee County Central High School in Manchester, TN. The two met by chance one afternoon on the campus of MTSU and exchanged phone numbers. May of 1995 was not the age of cellular communication. At that time, it was normal to use the postal service to direct mail as opposed to "sliding into each other's DMs." When they couldn't talk over the phone they wrote letters to each other while James was home in Memphis, TN. The long distance was only temporary as James returned to Murfreesboro for the 1995 fall semester and Deta attended TSU before transferring to a small community college in Tullahoma, TN.

Life has a way of taking you places that are not a part of the plans we make, and for Deta and James, this was also true. Admittedly, James will say how his maturity was lacking, and the only desire he had was to "play sports someday with no real plan." The two stayed in touch that semester but broke off their relationship as James returned to West Tennessee. They stayed in touch, but Deta knew that she wanted to use her degree towards the independence she was encouraged by her mother to make her own when she was a child. James got a warehouse job and moved out of his parents' home with a plan to use the military to begin a career. Years would pass before James and Deta would speak again.

With the invention of social media, the two "friend requested" each other, but this time, Deta was well into her best years as a wife and mother of a son and daughter. James was also married with three children, two sons and a daughter. They would communicate sparingly over the next several years via voice, as well as social media. Their connection was real enough to maintain a friendship that began in the summer of '95 in spite of the limits and the reduction to 'Facebook Friendship'.

Fast forward to November 2020, that friendship brought them back together. While boarding a plane headed to Memphis after teaching CPR in Cincinnati, James received an unexpected call from Deta. At that time, Deta was dealing with a separation and pending divorce. After having been a friend to talk to for James when he went through the same, now it was on James to support Deta as she was going through her ordeal. The two of them, both having gone through separation and then divorce, found a common ground that their connection shared so many years ago helped to ease the emotional strain a divorce can be. They also realized that neither of them were the same person from 1995, and that connection they shared had to prove it could grow as both of them had. There were good days, and there were "those days," but they began to make it work via long distance (Deta would come to Memphis and James to Nashville when viable). They both continued to build on that summer of '95 foundation.

James asked her hand in marriage October of 2023, and the rest of the story is now history in the making! Between the two of them, they have six children. Isaac Cunningham is 27, Ilana Cunningham is 25, Jacob Harrold is 25, Perry Harrold II is 21, Jasmine Harrold is 15, and James Major Harrold is 9 years of age respectively.