For a long time, he had looked for someone like her, finally finding her on a softball field under a beaming fall sun.

Rudolpha Richards wasn't like any girl Michael Barron had ever met. She was sweet and well-spoken.

Photos by KIMBERLY SMITH/Staff (ENLARGE)

Engaged on a Christmas Day, Rudolpha Richards and Michael Barron got married Saturday at Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Stone Mountain.

(ENLARGE)

The Rev. Gregory Kenney officiates at the wedding of Rudolpha Richards and Michael Barron.

From the moment he laid eyes on Richards, he was drawn to her. She liked him, too. He was handsome and caring.

The game that day in Gainesville is a blur now, but they remember dancing the night away after sitting together during the bus ride home.

Over the next few months, wherever Richards was, that's where Barron wanted to be — sitting next to her, holding hands. If he went to a movie, he wanted her at his side. It was the same at church, at community dances and on the softball field.

One day Barron announced to his mother, Jennette Barron, that he intended to marry Richards.

You mean buy her a promise ring, Jennette Barron asked in a futile attempt to slow her son down.

No, he said. I finally found Mrs. Right.

He wanted Richards for his bride.

A wedding day had never figured into either of their lives.

When Richards was born in the fall of 1978, it looked like she wouldn't have a life at all. Her blood supply had been cut off during birth, and she wasn't even breathing when she entered the world.

Doctors revived her, but the prognosis was bleak.

You'll have to take care of her for the rest of her life, they told her mother, Hyacinth Gordon.

"I tell them no way," Gordon recalled the other day.

The Norcross mother of six set out to play memory games with her little girl. She taught her the alphabet and how to count and how to form words from letters. She encouraged her to read.

Anything Gordon needed to remember — telephone numbers, dates, addresses — she'd tell her daughter.

Everything doctors told her Richards wouldn't do, she proved them wrong. They were, however, right about one thing: Richards had developmental problems.

Barron was, too. It took him longer to do most things. His brothers were walking by the time they were 10 months old. Barron was 15 months. It was the same with sitting up.

Jennette Barron, a nurse with the DeKalb health department, wasn't alarmed. She just figured "each child is different."

But tests later revealed Michael was developmentally delayed. He lacked coordination and fine motor skills.

Even so, he managed to carve out a life for himself. He has held the same job for 14 years, gathering shopping carts at a local Wal-Mart. Richards is in charge of the books department at Goodwill Industries in Duluth.

They met playing softball for Special Olympics Georgia. Barron is a pitcher and Richards plays right field.

Everyone, coach Henry Bauer included, could tell Barron was smitten.

"In the beginning, they were very shy about showing their affection for each other," Bauer said, "but gradually everybody on the team began to realize they cared about each other."

They began talking about marriage almost immediately, but it wasn't until Christmas Day 2003 that the couple became officially engaged.

As her mother watched from a corner of the room that day, Richards began opening gifts. The first was a box from Barron, a gold ring tucked inside.

He took the box, dropped to his knees and asked Richards to marry him.

Yes, she said. Yes.

They agreed that June 16, 2007, would be their day. They started making plans. They'd wear white and blue and silver, the colors from Richards' coming-out day back in the Virgin Islands, where she was born. They'd exchange vows in a double ring ceremony before 250 friends and family members. Each of the guests would get a CD of their favorite songs, "I'll Never Stop Loving You," "Ribbon in the Sky," "Flying Without Wings."

Saturday, there were still no wings required.

Richards, in a flowing white gown, walked down the aisle on the arm of her brother, Air Force Staff Sgt. Rudolph Richards Jr.

At 28, she was the woman for whom Barron, 35, had been looking. She was Mrs. Right.

Thirty minutes later, she walked out of the Corpus Christi Catholic Church on his arm, a smiling Mrs. Michael Barron.

To suggest a story, write Real Living, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 72 Marietta St. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30303; e-mail gstaples@ajc.com; or call 404-526-5370.