The Boy Next Door
Jim and Patty McCollam of Butler led parallel lives in childhood, becoming friends as young adults.
Raised in Plum, the Butler couple lived side-by-side growing up, but a chilly relationship between their parents deterred them from associating.
School schedules also prevented interaction, since the then Patty Zdobinski attended Catholic school and Jim went to public school.
"We didn't even go to the same church," Patty said. "We were both Catholic, but we didn't really even see each other."
"It's funny how life turns out — especially since my sister would tease me and say, 'You're going to marry Jimmy McCollam,'" she added.
"My mother would say, 'Stop teasing your sister.'"
Although the two attended the same high school, Patty was a sophomore while Jim was a senior. After Jim graduated in 1982 and Patty two years later, both left home but eventually returned.
"Jimmy moved back home in 1988 after graduating from IUP. I moved back in June of 1990 after a long relationship ended badly," Patty said.
"I was not the least bit interested in looking for love again ... and certainly would not have expected to find it in my own backyard."
By the time both returned home, their mothers had formed a friendship, paving the way for interaction.
"We developed an easy friendship," Patty said.
"Things began to slowly change until we had our first actual date on June 30, 1991. We became engaged the end of September. We got married on June 27, 1992."
As far as when they fell in love, neither can pinpoint a specific time.
"I don't know if there ever really was a time. It just kind of grew," Jim said.
"We just got to be friends," his wife added — which I think is the only way you can get to know anybody."
As for her sister's childhood predictions, Patty says yes, she did marry Jimmy McCollam — and she is glad she did.
"We were married almost one year to the day of our first date and after almost 17 years of marriage now have four beautiful children to show for it," she said.
