FedEx driver's love was no rush delivery

Valentine's Day is one of FedEx driver Tom Rigney's favorite times to deliver packages. But he won't be passing out flowers and chocolates Monday on his Melville route.

He's taking the day off to prepare a candlelight dinner for the woman he nodded "hello" to for some 17 years - and who now is his fiancee.

When he first met Joanne Dunn after she began to work at an orthodontist's office on his route, both were married. In time, she divorced. Years later, Rigney separated from his wife, who later died. Eventually he and Dunn, both unattached, decided to take the relationship beyond the "hello" stage.

In April, on bended knee and with engagement ring in hand, Rigney, 55, of Sound Beach, proposed to his sweetheart atop the Eiffel Tower. Dunn, of Lake Grove, also 55, said that first she giggled, and then said, "Yes."

"She was right there in front of me all those years," he said. "Sometimes you walk right past a person and never know what your future is going to be."