Valdese residents Rob and Deb Bratcher share a love like a fairytale
Rob and Deb Bratcher at their Cinderella-themed wedding in October 2023.
Imagine being proposed to on stage, during a production of “Shrek the Musical.”
Debra Bratcher doesn’t have to imagine. It really happened.
Debra, 65, and now-husband Robin Bratcher, 63, are frequent community theatergoers. In the last five years, the couple have seen 96 plays together from the Old Colony Players (OCP) in Valdese, The Green Room in Newton, Hickory Community Theater, and Foothills Performing Arts in Lenoir.
About three years ago, they attended OCP’s production of “Shrek the Musical.”
Deb said she donated blood earlier that day and was tired. Dressing up wasn’t a thought in her mind. It was an outside performance anyway, so she assumed no one would see her attire.
Near the end of the play, former OCP General Manager Edyth Potter took the stage, asking who in the audience believed in true love. Rob raised his hand. Little did Deb know what Rob and Potter had planned.
Rob Bratcher proposes to Deb Bratcher in April 2023 during an Old Colony Players production of ‘Shrek the Musical.’
Potter called them to the stage. Rob got on one knee and asked a series of questions: Are you happy? Do you feel loved? Do you feel cherished and safe? When Deb said yes, actors held up lettered signs that spelled out Rob’s next question —
Will you marry me?
“I said yes, and then they all broke out in the song ‘I’m a Believer,’” Deb said.
That was in April 2023. That October, the Bratchers got married. The two live in Valdese together.
The duo not only love theater, but music. It was the karaoke app Smule that first brought them together in 2020. Rob was one of the people who duetted Deb’s cover of gospel song, “The Unclouded Day.”
At the time, Deb lived in New Jersey while Rob lived in Burke County. She said the two of them just clicked.
The Bratchers take part in several groups and projects: Both play ukulele with the Ukulele Society and sing in the adult choir at their church, First United Methodist in Valdese. They also visit College Pines Health & Rehabilitation — a nursing home in Connelly Springs — once a month with their ukuleles to spend an hour singing to residents.
Deb also sings in a quartet called Synergy and recently joined a barber shop chorus in Conover called Carolina Style Chorus.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Rob and Deb Bratcher in a Cinderella-inspired carriage at their October 2023 wedding.
What do you love most about living in Burke County?
Deb: For one thing, right now we live right on Main Street above a couple of businesses. I guess you would call it a loft apartment. We have four windows that look out onto Main Street. We have front row seats — but up above — and we can watch the Christmas parade pass below us. Then when the Waldensian Festival comes, we have front row seats to the stage.
Rob: Here’s the thing I like most about Burke County, and in particular Valdese. We have a community that allows us to be from here without being from here. Our pastor said the same thing, that you can go somewhere and live 40 years but never feel like part of the community, whereas in Valdese, you don’t have to be born and raised here. Once you become part of the community, you’re part of the community.
Deb: I’m originally from Washington State.
Rob: And I’m a native Georgian who got here through textiles.
Who has had a big influence on your life, and why?
Rob: My father had a lot of demons in his life. He passed away when I was 7. There was an elderly couple, Lois and J.D. Lester, and they would bring their station wagon down into the little mill village I lived in and take a bunch of us mill town kids to Sunday school. J.D. became like a father figure to me. He was an influence on my life for seven or eight years, and he showed love and kindness by example. I’ve always tried to emulate that; throwing anything that’s judgmental to the side and just being kind and loving.
Deb: My parents. But if it were just one person, it would be my dad. He and my mom, they led a godly and Christian life. They passed that on to us kids, naturally. That gave me a really good foundation to build on. Then, of course, the music and singing. He always said that I was the real musician because I was the one that could read music, and he never could. He just did it all by ear. I always felt like he had the God-given talent. But I was his daddy’s girl. I feel like I still am, but he’s been gone since 2008. I miss him a lot.
