Tricia and Aaron Jelcick both attended WSU with no expectations of meeting each other, but the cosmos has other plans for these two.

Tricia is a Pullman native and attended WSU from 1988 to 1991, where she majored in business, and later went on to get her master’s in business administration. 

Aaron attended WSU from 1987 to 1991, where he got both his undergraduate and graduate degrees in criminal justice. 

Now you may be thinking, how could two people with such different majors possibly meet and create a beautiful relationship? Not without the help from friends, and a witch-filled evening. 

“I was at Shakers [now The Emporium] with my girl friend Christina … I was kind of done and just ready to go home and she wasn’t ready to go home,” Tricia said. “Christina said ‘oh, I know someone that is super nice, and super sweet and he’ll make sure you get home safe.’”

Tricia said she was then introduced to Aaron, and they proceeded to walk over to B Street, where she was living. 

“We were walking home talking, just having fun, and I told him that there was a witch living in one of the nearby houses,” she said. 

Because Tricia grew up in Pullman, she had thought since childhood that this woman was a witch. Naturally, she said she was just being funny and did not think anything would come from it.

“Aaron goes, well, let’s run through her backyard, and I go, oh no no no, she cuts her grass with sickles! I was scared,” she said.  

Aaron proceeded to jump over the fence and run through her lawn, and Tricia, not wanting to be alone, followed suit. 

“We ended up staying up until two or three in the morning, we just had a great conversation,” Tricia said. 

Tricia and Aaron did not talk for a few years after that, but after returning back for graduate school, Tricia knew she had her eyes set on Aaron. 

Aaron was working at the Coug when Tricia returned to school, and Tricia said she approached him and asked him to go on a double date with her, to which he accepted. 

They had an amazing night, dancing in Moscow, but afterward, Tricia said Aaron did not call her. 

“My buddies were like dude, just hang out with us, she’s too hot for you, it’s not going to work,” Aaron said. 

Tricia did not give up. When she saw him out again, she asked him why he never called her. 

“I found him and said ‘hey, you never called, and he was like you’re right. I didn’t. I’m sorry,’” she said. “From then on, we started dating.” 

After completing graduate school, Aaron left to go to a fishing camp for a few months in Alaska. He said he thought this would be the true test of their relationship.

“We could only communicate by letter … so we’d write them back and forth until I came back from Alaska,” Aaron said. “She was super excited to see me still, and it was awesome. I came back and I went down to The Shane Company and bought her a diamond ring and proposed to her at the end of that summer.” 

Tricia and Aaron will be married for 29 years in a few months, and they have two children, one who is a WSU Alum, and one who is in the midst of her senior year. 

“[WSU] is a place for everybody … it doesn’t matter who you are, or what your interests are. There is something here for everybody,” Tricia said. 

Aaron said a huge part of their success in marriage is never having an idle moment together. 

“A big part of our success is we’ve always taken chances, and we’ve always been taking those chances together and done fun things. Whether it’s riding an old motorcycle across the United States, to adopting rescue dogs … it’s being able to have fun and keep things lively,” he said.