Happy Post-Valentine’s Day! If you’re in need of a good love story, or in need of PBS credits, look no further than February’s blog contest.
The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks is one of the most widely read books on our site, with 1,426 reviews. Many Nicholas Sparks fans say it is the prolific romance author’s best and most touching work. Any one of the thousands of members who have read the book can readily explain the novel’s appeal. It’s a story about real, powerful love that endures over a lifetime, and it’s an intimate invitation to share the likable couple’s journey. A true tale of devotion like this is a welcome reminder of how wonderful life can be when you’ve given your heart to another.
Available to order on PaperBackSwap today!
Since Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, we’d like to invite you, our readers, to submit your love stories to the PBS Blog. You can tell us how you met, what made you fall head-over-heels, or what has kept the flame alive. If your anecdote involves Valentine’s Day, that’s even more fitting! Just let us in on any influential details that made your journey as a couple special and worth retelling as “your love story”.
Get your submissions in by February 25th in a comment to this post. We’ll choose the top five stories and post them on February 28th. Then, PBS members will have four days to vote for the best one. The winner will be announced on March 4th and that lucky lovebird will receive ten credits!
Please keep the stories to no more than 300 words. Though you may be madly in love, you don’t need to include every single detail about your other half! Let’s face it; if it’s that interesting, it’s probably fiction.
Now that you know the details, it’s time to start writing! If you aren’t sure how to begin, think of The Notebook to give you an idea. If you haven’t read it yet, what are you waiting for? Order it from the site as a Valentine’s day treat, sure to lift even the weariest of hearts!
Tags: Book Recommendations, Book Suggestions, contest, Contests, entries, Free Credits, Genres, holiday, Members, Romance, submissions, Valentine's Day
I was living on St. Kitts, a small Caribbean island, where I was attending veterinary school. Out of boredom one day during a study break, I signed up for eHarmony.
One day prior, Bill had already completed his profile. We were matched to each other within my first 24 hours on eHarmony. I listed in my profile that my home town was in central Florida, which it was, but not that I was currently living in the Caribbean. Bill asked to take me to lunch on Memorial Day weekend – he was surprised to find that I was not actually in the states! Instead, we decided to have our first “date” over the phone.
Three weeks later, Bill and I had strong feelings for one another, and he decided to fly to St. Kitts for a weekend. I asked if he would bring me a cheap pair of zirconium stud earrings from the states, as I had lost one of mine.
When Bill exited through the doors of the airport on St. Kitts, my heart leapt. He was everything I thought he would be, and the chemistry was palpable. That night he handed me a little box containing a pair of diamond earrings. He did not know that all my life I had desired a pair of diamond earrings but never had any. It was a magical moment that brought me to tears.
In August I flew back to Florida for a semester break, and returned to St. Kitts with a custom-crafted engagement ring that draws attention to this day. We were married four months later on a sandy lake shore in Orlando, FL and have been married for three wonderful years. I still wear those diamond stud earrings every day.
My husband and I met on hotornot.com. We both hit the “meet me” button, then met in person on Nov 24, 2004. We spent every minute together until Dec 8, 2004 and we got married. Our marriage has been hard and wonderful. We didn’t have much time to fall in love and have struggled since. We have made it 6 yrs now and have a 4,3 10 month old, angel baby and 1 on the way. We have fought and loved and we are still in love. More so now than when we got married because of the trials we have been through. All we can do is take it one day at a time.
My husband and I met in Kindergarten. We were in the same class and attended the same school until 7th grade when my family moved away. I didn’t like him, I thought he was a bit nerdy with his glasses, but he says he had the biggest crush on me. One day in the playground he kept throwing a balled up paper at me and running away. I picked it up and it said “Will you go with me?” Mortified, I immediately threw it down and ran the opposite way. That night I wrote in my diary that John asked me to be his girlfriend I would be embarrassed if anyone found out. In our class photo I am sitting and he’s standing directly behind me.
Fast forward 13 years later, me a jaded, depressed woman sitting in a bar. A hand taps me on the shoulder and I turn to see this really attractive guy. Wow. He knows my full name, tells me we went to school together and names many former friends and classmates. I do not recognize him. Actually, I become suspicious thinking someone has sent him to play a trick on me. Normally, cute guys don’t try and pick me up. So I begin to look around trying to find the jokester. After talking with him for 2 hours (me still not remembering him), I excuse myself to the restroom. In there I have this epiphany and suddenly remember him. When I go back, I say “I know who you are now.” The friend I came with is ready to leave by now and I give this guy one of my business cards and bid him goodnight expecting nothing further. He called the next day and we’ve been together ever since, that was 22 years ago.
When I was a freshman in college, I took a class about Shakespeare. At one of the professor-led lunches held after class, I overheard our prof begging students to participate in a scene in front of the 200-person class. Without knowing what it was, I raised my hand to volunteer at the same time as my friend “John”. John and I then found out it was the scene from Romeo and Juliet where they meet at the party, speak a sonnet between them….and kiss twice. On the lips. So in rehearsing it, I had my first kiss. The scene went over very well with the class (with some catcalling, of course), and John and I got to be good friends. John then introduced me to his roommate who, unlike John, was exactly my type and single. We started hanging out, bonded over a mutual adoration of the Colbert Report, and, after a particularly adorable note I left him on his computer asking him out, started dating. While he wasn’t my official first kiss, he was certainly my first real one and I have the official first kiss to thank for that. We’ve been together for over four years now and I wouldn’t have it any other way. He’s the light of my life and makes me smile every single day. I love you, hon!
I met Ron when I was fifteen. I saw him everyday on my school lunch hour. Everyday he would ask me on a date. Everyday I would tell him I couldn’t date until I turned sixteen. On the day of my sixteenth birthday, he was at my house. He was my first date, first kiss and first love. We dated awhile then moved on, grew up and traveled away from our home town. Twelve years later, I came back. A single Mom, my daughter and I were looking for a fresh start. As fate would have it, he had recently moved back as well. Again, he was knocking on my door. Two years later we were married. He adopted my daughter and we’ve had a son! My first love ended up being my last!
My husband’s sister used to be my babysitter. As young teenagers, my husband used to pick on me and my friends when we were out in public. We totally repaid the favor though, and harassed him as much as we could. One day, when I was 14 – I stopped picked on him and started defending him instead! We became very close! But my parents didn’t approve, and when he went off to college – they forbid him to see me (we’re a few years difference.) He stubbornly told them that he was going to wait for me and he would marry me someday. We each flitted through a few dates with other people, but kept breaking up because those other people weren’t nearly a good replacement for each other! He finally admitted to me that he was still in love with me (this was almost five years later!) and the rest is history! We’ve now been married 7 years, and have a beautiful baby girl!
I met my husband in 1995, June to be exact and it was devine intervention. A friend of mine asked several times for me to go with her to her Aunt’s home and I kept refusing. It was about an hour’s ride and I just didn’t want to go. But finally between her and my mother they talked me into it and I decided to go. When I walked in their house I saw a handsome man laying on the floor. (He says I turned his world upside down that day, since his first sight of me I was upside down to him). We talked that day, sparks flew, and decided to meet again later with his cousin, my friend in tow. Just in case we didn’t really hit it off. We all went dancing. I think I started loving him then. We were together all the time from then on. He’s sweet, loving, strong and makes me laugh even when I’m so mad at him. We got engaged that Halloween and married 1yr and 10days after we meet. We’ve been together 15yrs now and I love him more now than I did then. He makes all my dreams come true. Thanks to him I get to stay home with our two kids. He’s still handsome and just the sound of his truck coming home can still make my heart beat faster. I can’t imagine him not in life. And he still turns me on and says I’m still the best looking thing he’s ever seen. Yeah he knows how to make me smile. And the funny thing? When my mom meet him the first time she looked at him, said “dang you’re getting married” and walked away. We’d known each other 2weeks at that point. But she said she knew from the look in our eyes and they way we just had to touch, a hand, an arm, whatever. He actually loves my mom, and I loved his, still do, even thought she’s no longer with us. Our families became one. When you get that it just makes you love him even more. I mean he really cares about my mom, how can I not adore him for that?
My husband and I met in strange way and well, it could have been a romance novel.
I was at a training course for work. My boss asked me to take the one of the support group to lunch as the person had done a lot of work to help our department integrate their software into our work. So I did.
We had a great lunch talking about everything (not just our work). He asked my to dinner. I said Yes.
We had a drink and talked and talked and talked at the bar until there was a table.
After dinner… we decided we would like to see each other again (He is from California, I live in Minnesota). I changed my plans, he changed his.
I was staying with my Aunt and Uncle ( after my course) and he came over and we spent Saturday and Sunday (until my plane home) together (with various members of my family)
We spend the next 4 months… either emailing or flying to meet.
(it was just email no internet or web)
We were were married 6 months later and are still married today 23 years later.
I still have the emails my husband sent to me for the 4 months after we met.
I met my husband, for the most part, on a bus when we were 16. We went to the same church and knew of each other, but hadn’t spent any time together. We were both going on the Mexico Mission’s Trip with our church youth group and I had decided that he was cute and it might be fun to spend time together. Granted, I was super shy so I don’t know how I thought that was going to happen. On the long bus trip he managed to make his way upfront and sit in the seat in front of me. He talked with my seat mate in hopes of drawing me into conversation unaware that I ended up thinking he liked my friend. My reaction was to put on headphones and silently fume. It became clear he wasn’t at all interested in my friend and we spent the rest of the bus ride getting to know each other. He joked with me and made me laugh the entire week trip. We didn’t do more than hold hands secretly on the bus drive home but it was fun, genuine and very sweet. We got back from the trip and the next day I got his number from our church directory and bravely called him. That call turned into us getting to know each other, officially dating for 7 years before getting married right after college graduation. We wrote letters to each other for every silly anniversary or occasion in each year we dated and I love that we have such sweet and special words to each other to cherish. We grew up together and built a strong relationship. September marked our 4th wedding anniversary and we have a wonderful 1 year old daughter who loves her daddy as much as I do.
In 1998 I met the most wonderful man. Let me backtrack, in Dec. of “97” I wrote a letter to God describing what I was looking for inn a man, God answered that letter but with a twist! He sent me the man of my dreams, sweet caring, sense of humor, loved children ( since I had 13 grandchildren), loved animals etc, the twist was my soulmate was in a wheelchair! He was born with spina bifidia! But let me tell you that wheelchair didnt keep him down! We fell head over heels in love! We were inseperatable from the time we meet until the day he was killed in a freak accident. We meet in Feb, fell in love & had a commitment ceremony in March, March the 13th in fact! Our honeymoon was going to the movies to see the Titanic! We both cried at the end of the movie! We just loved doing all kinds of things together, we went out dancing, yes he could make that wheelchair rock, we went hunting for the perfect Christmas tree in the woods at that, he sometimes thought his wheelchair was a four wheeler! He will be dead 7 years this Feb. 16th, I miss terribly he was my soulmate may he rest in peace.
I met my husband thanks to my overwhelming urge to fix spelling. I was goofing around on a dating site and saw an ad for a local guy whose username was Seatar. I left him a message that his name was misspelled (I thought he was some sort of seat-putter-on-er). He wrote back to explain it was a Naval acronym and was I interested in talking with him as a friend, as he was new to the area and didn’t know many people.
We became good friends and I went to visit him for the first time – and discovered that his home was on the back side of the wooded hill where my grandmother lived. I was determined not to get involved with him romantically but that big sign stuck in my mind and well, here we are, married for 8 years. I love telling people that I found more family than I knew I had on that hill.
It all started when he flagged down my best friend’s car. He knew her as a friend and was going to see if he could talk her into spending the night with him. He seen me in the passenger seat and changed his mind and asked me out instead! We ended up talking in his truck until 2:00 a.m. He called the next day to ask me out again for Wednesday night. I told him I couldn’t go out with him because I wanted to go to church and I asked him did he want to go with me. He told me he would go anywhere to be with me! We got married six weeks later and that was 13 years and three kids ago. He still makes my heart race when we kiss!$
I met my husban online we got married on v-day. long story short! our 3 yr wedding annivesary is coming up…yeiii love you baby calos j ramirez…lol….um ok God bless us more yrs thanks…and i prayed so hard bc both of us have mental disorders and are not working and we just had our first baby boy so thank you God again!
I met my husband in a little bar that my Aunt & Uncle owned. I am not a bar person. My friends took me there (under duress) to get me out of the house. I have to say we had a good time. While we were there my Aunt came over and said she had a guy she wanted me to meet. I told her no way, there wasn’t one man in there that had all his own teeth and I wasn’t interested. She said this guy is really cute and really shy, and she thought we would hit it off. When I turned to see who she meant, no one was there. Aunt Joanne said “oh crap, he’s so shy he left!”
He came back a little while later and Aunt Joanne came back over to the table. When I looked to see who she meant, I told her I know him, we went to school together, he used to ride my bus–we used to call him Elvis. I was definitely interested, but as fate would have it, my friends decided it was time to go. My best friend Cary, challenged me to “do something about it, intstead of just walking out”. I told her fine…as we walk by him, I’ll lick the side of his face. I didn’t, but I did smile at him, and I did keep going back to “visit” my aunt. After a few weeks, Eddie and I started talking–and haven’t stopped. It’s 17 years later and we’re still together! (oh and by the way, he says he knew I was his the night I smiled at him).
I was a dispatcher for a local 911 center. My position was temporary, but during that year I had made a lot of friends. I moved on to a local fire department, but one deputy (from the 911 center) kept coming by. We became good friends, but that was all,,,or so I thought. One night after work we were he had come by to see me and we were sitting by my car. I got really close, like he might kiss me. I whispered, “You wouldn’t…” He did.
I was going through a lot at the time and didn’t really need this relationship to add to things. I pushed him away as hard as I knew how, but he was relentless. We both saw other people off and on for a while, but couldn’t get past each other.
We have had many ups and downs, either from being insecure or immature, mostly on my part. He is the man of my dreams. He is secure, supportive, loving, understanding….etc. You get the point. I have had some health issues and he has been there to take care of me every step of the way.
We have now been married 5 years, and have 1 child together, for a total of 4 children altogether. I can’t do our story justice in 300 words. But he is a wonderful man and I love him.
I was alone the Valentines Day of 1995. I decided there must be a way to meet people that didnt involve going to bars where I didnt know anyone and/or having to compare to younger women. I joined a dating service and in those days they werent on the internet!
My very first call was from a man named Ray. We hit it off on the phone. I understood what he meant and I could finish his sentences for him, or find that word he was trying to think of. We met up the very next evening after work for dinner. He walked into the restaurant and smiled at me and my heart beat hard in my chest!
We were never apart after that. We married one year later on Valentines Day 1996! Our Daughter was born in March of 1997. This year is our 15th Wedding Anniversary!
We are truly meant to be together. I had a vision of him one night when I was feeling so very lonely and asked god to show me who would be in my life. Happy Anniversary SweetHeart!
One of my friends invited me to her house my senior year for a Christmas party. Thinking this was going to be a wild party, I showed up to see her parents were there with trays of cookies and pitchers of punch. This adorable guy asked if my friend and I would like to go for a ride and we happily accepted. Imagine our surprise when we stepped outside and were pointed to this huge four wheel drive pick up truck! We climbed in (literally) and rode all over town. At the end of this night, as we sheepishly pulled back up to my friend’s house, whose party was long over by now, This guy asked me for my number and wondered if I’d like to go fishing with him the next day. I agreed. Two years later, the man that took me fishing on our first date, asked me to marry him. Twenty-five years later, we are still married and enjoy fishing together with family.
I first met my husband in first grade, in 1956. We had the same teacher and a wonderful class picture of us together and went to the same school for 4 more years, then when I was 14 we met up again thru a friend of his and he seemed too bossy to me , wore a leather jacket and thought he was mr. cool. so I wasn’t interested in him, all I was interested in was books, and music at that time. Then I got my drivers license. and all that changed… we had a thing for all the kids that we cruised all the Azar Big Boy restrurants from end of our town to the other and of course I did, and one night while sitting in one having soda, my car decided to quit running… I was 17, and sitting there worrying about how to get home when these two cute boys came over and offered to help me… the tallest looked familiar but I couldn’t place him.. well they got the car started and missed their ride , so I offered to let them hang out with us and take them home. As it turned out he was the boy from my first grade class and while we were riding around we decided to stop and get some snacks. He was very sweet, bought my gas and paid for the snacks and had my cousin and his friend go in the store so we could be alone… Above my sunvisor was a button that said “Kiss me I’m sweet” I had forgotten all about it, and while we were talking he ask me if it was true… I was so flustered I didn’t know what to say except” I don’t know” and wow… he gently kissed me and looked at me so sweet and said, ” it is” and we spent the rest of the night together and every day since then.. We were married 6 months later and have been married 43 yrs. and renewed our wedding vows by the same pastor who married us , with the same witnesses and in the same place for our 40th anniversary.. and I believe God put us together and I am still in love with him , we still hold hands, say I love you when we leave each other, and kiss each other goodbye, and goodnight.. We have 3 wonderful children and 5 beautiful grandchildren, and I am very happy and blessed to have found someone who loves me so much..
My husband and I did not get together by the most conventional means. It began in my early teens. My husband worked for my parents at a lumberyard and was 15 years older than myself. I used to walk down there after school just in the hopes of catching a glimpse of him or saying “hi.” When I was 16, I was taking care of a sidewalk sale for my parents and he came outside and asked me, “If I buy something, would you go out with me?” I said yes, but it never happened. He feared getting fired since I was the bosses daughter and he was 15 years older.
Needless to say, we both went our separate ways. I went to college, I moved away and we married separate spouses, had children but we were both in very poor marriages. Mine was emotionally abusive and in a way his was too.
Years later, my husband at that time, was asked to move back to my hometown and manage my parents business. I, then,went to work for HIM. My current husband was still under his employ and we rekindled our thoughts for each other through letters. We passed each other letters every day, learned about each other and our relationships, until we realized we were both very much in love with each other. We secretly went camping and had our affair. We realized there was no turning back. After tumultuous divorces and living together for 8 years we finally married with our children as best men and maids of honor. We have been very happily married for 10 years. Our friends and family always tell us it was just meant to be.
It was Christmas 1981. My boyfriend was living in Colorado at the time, and coming home to Pennsylvania for Christmas. I thought there might be a ring in my Christmas presents that year, but wasn’t sure.We had been apart for nearly 5 months due to our master’s degree programs. All day in Pennsylvania I waited with his family to drive to the airport in Washington DC to pick him up. Halfway through the day, he called and said that Denver CO was in a blizzard, and few planes were getting out. Several hours later he called and said he would arrive by midnight in DC. Unknown to me at the time was that the roads around the airport in Denver were so clogged with traffic that he had to get out of a friend’s car, grab what was most important for the trip and hike three miles to the airport to get on the plane on time.
His plane landed around midnight in DC. I searched the crowds but didn’t see him until he was practically right next to me! Two days later, he proposed. The ring had been on his priority list which was packed at the last minute before he hiked to the airport!
I was a single mom struggling to raise my three boys in Chicago. He was a single dad grieving the death of his wife from breast cancer. She left him with four boys to raise, including a pair of twins. (She was diagnosed when the twins were eight months old.) We both worked for similar companies, in fact, I’d known his boss for years, but Steve and his family were living in Slovakia as missionaries when his wife became sick. Fast forward a couple of years and Steve contacted my company for permission to reprint a terrific article. I’d written the article, so we connected and felt VERY safe – since neither of us was going to marry again. We had both decided to commit to raising our boys and not disrupt their lives. Then God intervened. The first day I talked with Steve on the phone was the day my sister was hit by a car and suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury. My family was faced with end-of-life decisions and he was the only one I knew who’d recently experienced these tough, heartbreaking decisions. I picked up the phone and we started talking about life and death. Over the next six months, during my sister’s awakening from the coma and entering rehab, we fell in love. I couldn’t believe that I’d now be the mom of seven sons – but the love was so different that anything I’d ever experienced – I said yes in March 2001.
It’s been ten years of living in a fraternity-type setting raising our seven boys and then care giving for his grandmother for the past five years (she just turned 105 on 2/8/2011!) but we’ve always, always, always loved each other through each crazy situation we’ve encountered. On June 1, 2011 we’re celebrating our 10th anniversary, more deeply in love than that very first day of our marriage.
It was a strange kind of day. Having lost my mother to breast cancer and with my three kids still in high school, having a breast biopsy was even below cleaning toilets on my list of things I wanted to do. My husband Duane, the workaholic, had taken a vacation day to drive me to the hospital. We were quiet in the speaking kind of way being married a long time affords you. He kissed me goodbye when hospital personnel took me away, squeezed my hand, told me he loved me. I knew that. And needed it.
The next thing I knew, my gynecologist was grinning at me and saying, “Benign. Benign. You’re okay, Liz. It’s benign.” I thanked him, finished waking up, got dressed.
We were quiet again going home, our hands together on the console of the car. “I’m sorry you had to use a vacation day for this,” I said. Our vacation days were usually spoken for months in advance. We both cherished them.
It’s been…oh, 20-some years since that biopsy. We’ve been married 40 years now. But I still remember, as though it was yesterday, when Duane squeezed the hand he was holding and said, “Hey, this is the best day off I ever had.”
I met my husband at a crazy time in my life I was 33 no steady man, work, work, work. Renting a room from my hairdresser. She invited me to go with her because she was doing a permanent at a family friend’s house. I said no, I had to study for a test in a college couse I was taking, but she persuaded me to accompany her. This handsome guy answered the door when we knocked. My roommate put the pink hairdresser’s cape around his neck and proceeded with the permanent .Fro’s were in at that time. We talked & talked. Nothing special was going on in my head. He asked for my phone #, and I gave it to him. What a nice guy I thought, never expecting him to call. He did, often that was March, we moved in together in May(against my better judgement. first talked to my mom about it) and were married in August. As we moved around , he always brought the black rubber mat from his home with him because he said” that was where” I first saw you standing”. We’ve been married for 29 years now, and maybe he’s not always that romantic now, but he’s still my best friend and I love him with all my heart.
July 1, 2000 – The hottest day of Alabama’s year as far as I and my friend were concerned.
He was flying in from Seattle, WA to meet me for the first time in person. As he exited the plane and made his way into the waiting area of the airport, I stood anxiously looking for his face in
the crowd of disembarking passengers. He was nearly the last passenger off the plane.
One glance at this “giant” and I knew the key to my heart had been taken. My husband stands 6′ 3″ tall and told me during one of our internet conversations when I told him I was only 5’4″ tall, “I can bend you know.” and that sent me in a tailspin after all our conversations about me being high-maintenance and short. But what really captured my heart with this man was his complete heart being vulnerable and yet eager to claim a new relationship after two failed marriages. We will be celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary in 2012 and the man has spent the last 11 years spoiling me rotten with both his love and the many gifts that have made my life easier and less high-maintenance.
I had moved to finish college, started a new job (to pay for college), and made a new friend at the new job. Late in summer the work friend had asked if I’d try to teach her to play tennis. We would stop for a beer at a college neighborhood bar (not Cheers, but similar) afterwards. She knew the crowd and I soon found myself alone at the bar – chatting with the bartender and infrequently with an unusual looking guy. The later was confused that I had travelled in Europe with my work friend so would discuss travel. The bartender would tease me about where I’d travelled recently for a campaign I was helping with.
Both guys I considered ‘friends’ at the bar – someone I could converse with, after being abandoned by the coworker. I started looking forward to chats with the unusual guy. We went to lunch, we’d go to a movie. I was busy – I took night classes, worked full-time, and was still campaigning. The coworker ‘warned’ that Mr. Unusual was interested in me. I said we were friends; I didn’t have time for a relationship. (I’d been dumped prior to moving and had no interest in a relationship.)
I was comfortable socializing with Mr. Unusual. We had similar interests, he could carry on an intelligent conversation. He was pleasant company. Then one night at the bar a brand new James Taylor song came on. He started singing along – he had a wonderful voice! He knew all the words! I didn’t realize it was a remake from Sam Cooke (I think). My hard protective shell had been cracked.
Within days I was to leave for a campaign workshop that was a 4 hour drive away. He asked to come have coffee with me before I left that morning and help me load my vehicle. He insisted on handing me a credit card for vehicle repair – just in case I had problems on the road. (I felt odd about it since I wanted everyone to think I could take care of myself.) We walked out to my car together …then he kissed me goodbye. No brief, friendship peck on the cheek but a passionate kiss.
I was smiling so hard on the 4-hour drive my cheeks hurt. Needless to say, I didn’t stay the entire 3-days for the workshop. I gave them some lame excuse and returned home early. He really was my bff! And now 30+ yrs later, we’re still married.
I found the man I would later call my husband in May 2005. At the time I’d met my husband I’d been “seperated” (still not divorced from my first husband) for 2 years. I wasn’t in the dating seen nor was I interested. I had been living with my roommates in Henderson, NV. Across the street from the condo I lived in was a little locals casino/ bar called Racetrack. Her and I would go there every night and sit at the bar playing penny keno. One night I decided that I would sit at one of the slot machines on the floor. Because I needed change before I started, I had pressed the button that would call someone to help me. James happened to anwer that call. From that day I would go to the casino everyday to watch him and within a week we were talking whenver he could steal a few minutes away from customers.
One night, I got ready to go and I told him that I would be back the next day. His exact words were “I hope so”. I remember going home that night and thing “does he like me?”. “I hope so, because I think I like him”. I proceeded to go back the next day however he wasn’t there. I went back the day after that… still he wasn’t there. I didn’t see him again for another 5 days (I later found out he was on vacation).
The next week I saw him, we started talking again. We continued to talk for the next four months. I knew that I was starting to fall for him even though I didn’t want. I had been hurt really bad by my ex and had thought dating would be out of the picture. Sure enough in September 2006 he asked me out of our first date. He was off early that day so we decided to meet for dinner at a nearby casino. There we ate and ended up talking for 3 hours. The silence between us never subsided. We talked about everything from our likes, dislikes, and fears. When we ended the night, he kissed me on the cheek, we exchanged numbers and went our seperate ways. he called me that night to tell me he had a wonderful night and to call him when I got home from work. The next day I called the number he gave me however it was disconnected. At that point, I had decided to forget it. If he wanted to be like that (give me a non working number) then I wasn’t going to bother. I didn’t go back to the casino for 3 days. The 3rd day, I went back with my roommate. I think James saw me because he came to the bar and asked to talk to me. I said ok and we out the back door to talk. He explained that he had forgotten to pay hs cell phone bill and after realizing it that same day, paid it and turned it back on. he begged me to give him another chance and I agreed. For 3 weeks straight we were inseperable. Doing everything together when we weren’t working.
One day he called me and said that he had to leave for West Virginia because his current home situation (he lived with a roommate who was unstable) was not livable so he was going to stay with his sisters. Because I was living with a roommate myself I couldn’t have him come stay with me and I knew that I wanted to continue to see James. As upset as I was I told him that we could continue to see each other long distance and that I would come see him in a month, he agreed. Two weeks later he was gone. We talked everyday for a month. After I got home from work I would call him and talk from 4pm to sometimes 3 or 4 in the morning. I’d bought a ticket to go see him a month later.
When I visited him in WV we had the best time. I knew he was my soulmate and that I wanted to marry this man! We talked about getting married but because I was still technically married I had to file for divorce from my first husband. I agreed. I planned to go back home in a few days and was getting antsy because I had to leave James.
A day later I went with one of his sisters shopping and lunch. It amazed me that they excepted me so easily and how comfortable I felt around them. The whole time I was there, they gave me little nick knacks and would tell me that they thought I would be good for their brother. When I cam home from this shopping trip, James was waiting for me. He told me to close my eyes and that he had 2 surprises for me. I closed my eyes and when he said open I did! There he held out a piece of paper that contained a one way ticket for him to come back to Las Vegas. My second was that he asked me to marry him and had the ring already picked out! Of course I said yes.
I flew back home by myself because the his plane ticket was the next day. I told my roommate that I was moving out. The next day I went and got us an apartment, and picked him up from the airport. We got married 6 months later in a little chapel across from the court house on April 16, 2006.
We will be celebrating our 5 year anniversary soon. This has been the best 5 years of my life. I fall in love with him more and more each day. My life is complete with James!
We had met Mischief Night (night before Halloween) on the bus commute from NYC, home. He approached me, sat next to me and began talking. I tried to keep reading and just be nice (friends told me I was too nice to strangers, lol.) He persisted. Told me he saw me in the mornings on the bus and thought he say hi. We began to really talk and asked the regular stuff- work, etc. He told me his job and I couldn’t believe it! Told him my brother did the same thing! What were the odds (they are film/video editors/Producers)?! We kept talking until my stop. The next morning, I saw him on the bus and we sat together. We commuted on the bus and the Path to NYC talking every day for a month before he asked me out to the movies. We saw Jim Carey’s Grinch… And here we are, 10+ years later, married 5+ years with a gorgeous 22 month old little boy!
This is a story of a past lover. I met Steve when I was 19 years old. I was married with one child. My husband was abusive and controling. Steve saw me going out to the mailbox one day. He had just gotten out of the service. He saw me and and I saw him. At that moment our eyes connected and our hearts. About a week later, he called me and asked me if I wanted to get out to the boardwalk with the baby as he knew my husband was working. Sure why not there was no harm is making a new friend. I had nothing to hide. We started to meet and go skating and to the beach and nothing was going on. One day my husband asked him to take me to the bar as I had never been to one. We did go and later we knew we were in love. I left my husband five times and always ended back with Steve until the last time. I heard he was seeing someone and I figured I had lost my chance so I moved on. Thirty years went by and I saw his mother died. I sent him a card. A few days later I received a call and it was him. I was shocked and my heart stopped. I knew I still loved him. We started to talk again. He was living in another state but called me at least once a week. He wanted me to come out to see him, but I was with another man by now and loved him as well. When I was asked to marry my new man I told steve who was upset but he wished me best of luck and we remained friends. One day two years later Steve called me and it was serious sounding. He told me he wanted me to know he loved me. I told him of course you do and I will always love you. NO he said..I mean I loved you and always have and I wish I could had been honest with myself. I have never loved anyone else. Wow…My daughter called me right then for a ride. I told him I have always loved you as well but I need to go pick my daughter up. I will call you back. He said he was gonna lay down he had a headache. I called him back a few days later and got no anwser. I left several messages and called him again on Thanksgiving. Two days after Thanksgiving the phone rang and it was his number but not him. His neighbor found him in bed and near death. They needed to find his family. My number was all they could find. I located his family who knew nothing of me. Three weeks later he died. His final words to me were “I Love You” and in his wallet was a picture of me and my daughter he had been given 33 years prior. In sprit he will always be and I will never forget a love in my heart that was never meant to be but I will always love him…
It was when my friends were all pairing up and dating that I met the love of my life-by accident. While my friends were all dating it left me with a lot of spare time, so I began searching for freebies on the internet. One website offered a free key chain if I posted a bio about myself for the site. I really liked the key chain so I posted some general info about myself (excluding things like my address for safety reasons) and waited eagerly for my free gift.
After a few weeks I got a response to my bio from a shy but sweet young man who lived about 45 min. away from me. He wanted to be internet friends since I “sounded nice”. I emailed back. We began writing to each other every day, sometimes several times a day. We progressed over the course of three months to making phone calls, and finally a first date at the movies. The night of our first date I knew he was the one for me and we planned another date. We dated for 5 years while I finished my degree and then I got impatient and proposed to him! He agreed and we have been together ever since-nearly 10 years so far.
I never got the key chain, but I did get the love of my life as a freebie!
It was a regular party night in Tuebingen, Germany – my friend Carol and I dragged each other to the local party-house where exchange students mingle with some Germans, but more so with each other. At 12 midnight I had no idea that I would be meeting a real-live German there, much less the love of my life! But “meet” we did, when my friend noticed this guy has been looking at me all night (which at first just made me feel self-conscious about my wild dancing behavior). She then pushes me right toward him, and I have no choice but to dance with him. As it turned out, he was real cute, but we only shared actual words with each other at the end of the party, 3am, when he asked me for my phone number. Since I didn’t have a phone at the time (hello, exchange student!), I gave him my real! e-mail address and he messaged me the next day with a simple English e-mail. And to get a German to make such efforts in English, I have since realized, is quite a feat. We met that weekend in town to walk along the Neckar riverside; the following week twice at parties, then again at the Hohen Tuebingen castle in full-on romantic mode – after dusk, with the whole small town below us, in utter quiet. And there we kissed for the first time. After that night, it was all over for me – we spent nearly every day together for the rest of my stay in Germany. He bought a ticket to my hometown in the states, traveled back and forth between our countries for two whole years, until we finally set a date – February 14th, 2009 – which happened to be the only Saturday we could work out, and Valentine’s Day. By far, the best Valentine’s Day of my life. We’ll have been together and so in love for two years this February 14th (can’t believe it!), and going as strong as we were those dreamy days in small-town Germany and still as determined as the following days, the long days, apart from each other until God only knew when. And that is history.
My husband and I met at a dumpster. Really. We lived in the same apartments, but worked different hours, so we’d never bumped into one another any other time. But one night, the dumpster of destiny called. We got to chatting, and at first, I thought he was a friendly, cute, married neighbor. After all, he had a gold ring on his finger, and I was not the type to go after a married guy. Strangely, that ring was on his right hand, so I was determined to figure out his marital status somehow. I had my chance when he mentioned that he was always eating on the run, and rarely sat down to a real meal. “You mean to tell me that your wife never cooks for you?” I asked innocently. “Oh, I’m not married!” he answered, and the rest is history.
What attracted me? Looks were a biggie – I won’t lie. We both had the travel bug, and compared notes on our crazy trips. We’d both climbed pyramids in Central America. He’d been to Berlin as the wall was coming down, and I was crazy with envy.
He was a gentleman, and had some rather old-fashioned and charming habits. I was cold on our first date; I swear I did not make that up just to get him to put his arm around me and pull me close to warm me up. But I sure didn’t mind. When we first met his brother and his young niece, he got on the floor and unselfconsciously played with her instead of joining the adults’ conversation.
He taught me how to eat crawfish Louisiana style, and introduced me to other culinary delights from his home state. He puttered with me in the kitchen, and co-created spectacular grilled creations. He was skinny, but had a chocolate stash. He wanted to learn more about wine, a quest that we happily took up together. He had been a fireman, had seen tragedy, and unflinchingly saw life for the gift it is. He knew how to program a VCR, while mine just blinked 12:00.
What keeps the flame alive? We are buddies, we are happy. We have three amazing kids that keep up laughing and keep us hopping. We sincerely enjoy them, and love the people they are becoming. We even took them to see the dumpster of destiny once. We move about every 5 years, so we enjoy our new adventures and exploring new places.
Single people of the world: bars are a disappointment. Singles groups are a meat market. Blind dates are the stuff of jokes. Never underestimate the power of the humble dumpster near your home.
I’m fortunate. After 31 years of marriage, my pulse still quickens and my heart pumps harder when I’m with my husband, Ed.
I don’t know if it’s because he once cooked a heart-shaped meatloaf for Valentine’s Day, rented a convertible for a day to drive to “no where”, or rowed me around the Central Park Lake on my birthday; he just knows how to make special days memorable.
However, it’s the everyday things that endear Ed most. Mornings starts with freshly ground, prepared the night before, brewed coffee. And after we leave for our respective occupations, the occasional “I’m just thinking of you” call keeps us connected.
Early on in our marriage, Ed would ask me, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” And I’d always answer, “Eddie’s girl.” It was our mantra and made us smile. We’re not just partners in a journey; we’re friends who share smirks and giggles.
Also, Ed is not ashamed to say he loves me; often. Or that I am beautiful; and I instantly feel so. He whispers a quiet, “Good Morning” – good to begin a new day together – and ends each one with “I hope I see you tomorrow” – because we both know, sometimes tomorrow never comes.
Ed’s actions speak louder than his words. The way he looks at me, unexpectedly reaches for my hand, or softly pushes a strand of hair behind my ear. He can speak wordlessly to me from across a crowded room with just a wink. He has cried, sighed and prayed for me. He tickles, teases and spoils me. In his arms I feel secure. And his kiss…..well, it’s bliss.
I’m so grateful to share my life with this man. And, of course, you know by now, I’ll always want to be Eddie’s girl.
It is just a yellow nightgown; a long tee-shirt of a nightie, reaching almost to my ankles. Its wide neckline and elbow-length sleeves are just to my liking. It is a gift from my husband on the occasion of my prescribed three months mostly in bed and surely not standing.
There are not enough o’s in the word broken to capture the condition of my right ankle, although the one will do for the status of my left foot. Two hours of surgery, a six-inch metal plate, and thirteen screws later, there I was facing three months without standing. If I needed reminding, there was the toes-to-knee cast on my right leg and the boot, luckily removable for sleeping, on my left.
Because I own only one dress and because wearing pants with my orthopedic accoutrements would be problematic, I early on decided that my convalescence would be wardrobed with nightgowns. But this yellow nightgown isn’t just any yellow nightgown. It came as a gift from my husband, and it bears our private code: 5011*. This is to be read as fifty-eleven with a star. It has for years been our shorthand for how much we love one another and we have written it on hundreds of letters, cards, and tucked-away messages. Part of the fun is to out-hide one another. On one occasion, my husband wrote it on the toothpaste tube that I took with me to visit my sister, and another time on the insoles of my shoes. And now this nightgown with 5011* embroidered by the seller. Where most would have a name or initials monogrammed, I have this. And I love him for it. I love him 5011*.
My husband and I met on Valentine’s Day in 2004. I was a couple of years out of a bad marriage with 3 small girls. We met at a friends house, and within a short time, he was down on his hands and knees playing with the girls–in his police uniform!! My girls were very timid with men, but took to him immediately. I was scared of love, but his love, patience, integrity and love for the Lord won me over. We married 6 months and 1 week after we met.
James is the crown jewel of husbands. He has a little boy’s playfulness, fun and sense of adventure with a man’s strength, integrity, compassion and love. He spoils me, loves me and makes me a better person. I can’t thank God enough for putting this wonderful man in my life.
I was dating my husband’s best friend, and the best friend really wanted to break up with me. I was only 17 years old. One night while cruising around town with a friend, I picked up my boyfriend and his best friend. They got in the backseat of my car. I had a German Chocolate Cake on the seat, that I had baked for the 4-H fair, and had just picked up. It had been on display for a week at the fair. My future husband asked me if I had baked him a birthday cake. I said I didn’t know it was his birthday, and that the cake was a week old. He said he didn’t care, and proceded to eat the whole thing. We had our first date a week later, married 16 months later, and I have baked him a German Chocolate Cake every birthday for the last 46 years.
We are still sweethearts, as I drive 70 miles round trip everyother day to visit him in a nursing home where he has been for the past 14 months with Alzheimer’s.
Back in the olden days, when most people walked to work, my trip would take me by the park where my husband to be and his friends played basketball. My husband and I met when he asked his cousin to find out who I was and to introduce us. His cousin didn’t know me even though we went to the same school and went out of her way to find out who I was. Our first date was a double date with them.
We have had our ups and downs over the years and have raised four boys, and are now enjoying our grandchildren. Our toughest battle came when my husband was diagnosed with COPD, about 15 years ago. Up until last year, we managed to take vacations to visit family and friends even though he is on oxygen 24/7. It took a lot of coordination getting the oxygen delivery to the people we visit but it was worth it. We took our grandchildren and visited his cousin and her husband who introduced us, who now live in Florida.
We still love each other as much as we did when we were married 46 years ago. And when times are tough, we remember our vows for better or worse, not leave when the going gets rough.
I searched high and low for the man of my dreams and at age 41, The Lord put him in my path! We met through a mutual friend. Peter’s wife had passed away 3 years prior to us meeting and he was left with three young boys to raise. I was the first woman he dated as he cared deeply for his first wife. The first time we went out, we both knew there was something special. Both being Christians, we believed God drew us together at the perfect timing and for a wonderful purpose. We married 10 months later and became a family. The boys now call me mom which I have explained to them means “My Other Mom-M-O-M”. They appreciate that because no one can take the place of your own mother. Peter and I have now been together 8 years and we have had a ministry of working with blended families and couples in keeping marriages healthy and happy. Peter is the love of my life and he is an amazing husband! He cooks, cleans, takes me out, talks with me, is affectionate, involved with our 3 boys, and loves my family. Truly we have been blessed and there is no greater Valentine than when you have found someone wonderful to share your life with. Happy Valentine’s Day My Love! Annie B.
Mark and I had known each other about six years through square dancing, but had just been casual friends. We decided to take some round dance (waltz) lessons together. We had a good time dancing and one night as we were taking our waltz lessons we just looked at each other, held each other a little closer and “sparks flew”….. we just knew that we were meant to be together. So we started dating and were married four months later.
Thirty years ago, I wrote a letter that would change my life. It was a letter written to a man who appeared in my dreams. I was looking through a friend’s college yearbook while visiting her one day, and to my astonishment, there was a graduation picture of my dream man. It had his address so I sent a letter asking, “What were you doing in my dream.? He wrote back asking “What was I doing in your dream? Was I the one who tied you to the tracks or rescued you seconds before the train came?”
Thus began a nine month correspondence while I finished college and traveled the country by bicycle. I had him send his letters to various PO boxes across the country. On those days I knew there’d be a letter waiting, and I pedaled with lightening speed. Sitting on a bike for 8 to 10 hours a day one has plenty of time for fantasizing. I just knew this was the man I would marry.
When my traveling came to an end, we were eager to meet. It turned out to be exactly as I planned. We spent some time getting to know each other and exactly a year to the day after we met, we were married. Thirty years and 3 children later, he is still the man of my dreams.
Our Love Story – or Timing is Everything!
We met at Thanksgiving 1964 in New York City, during a blizzard. It was actually love at first sight, although I didn’t realize it at first. He persisted in his quest for a date although I had returned to college in Washington D.C. But fate won out – Our first date was at Christmas and we knew we were in love. He proposed on New Year’s Eve with a dozen red roses. He gave me a beautiful ring on Valentine’s day and left the next day for a four month long business trip to South America. After many letters and expensive long distance phone calls ($80.00 for one call!) he returned on June 8 and we were married on June 9 in the garden of my parents’ home below the natural canopy of my dad’s maple tree. After a few days in the area which included my graduation from college, we loaded up our 1963 Chevrolet Impala with my belongings and our wedding gifts and drove to California where he was working in San Francisco. We drove in from the East just as the sun was setting and came through Sausalito, a beautiful town on San Francisco Bay just before the Golden Gate Bridge. We looked up and saw apartments high on a hill overlooking the bay, drove up to take a look, rented one on the spot, and moved in. Within a very short time, I was expecting and our family had begun!
We like to remember that I turned 21 on May 2, 1965; we were married on June 9; I graduated from college on June 13; we went to California to start our lives together; our first child was born on April 8, 1966; all before my 22nd birthday on May 2, 1966! What a wonderful year!!!!!!!! What a wonderful 45 years ago!!!!!!! What a wonderful man I have!!!!!!!! What a blessed marriage!!!!!!!!
My very unusual meeting with John was in a VA Hospital, in an xray room where he was the patient
who was being persecuted by an intern, two days after major surgery, and I was the xray tech
having to make him turn, he hadnt even been given his pain meds.
The next time I saw him he was walking with short legs and backwards feet He was a double leg amputee from Vietnam He and I got almost 29 yrs of marriage, He is now guarding the streets of heaven with his Lord, and I got the honor of seeing his name inscribed on the Vietnam Wall back in Wash DC. God bless All of You
Our “story” story – my husband and I found ourselves at different ends of the country just before our second wedding anniversary. He was looking for work in CA while I finished up my job in NY and waited for him to get settled. Every night, he read me a chapter of Harry Potter over the phone. We enjoyed reading together so much, a decade later, we’re working through Audrey Niffenegger’s books.
So many different stories to choose from in the 35 years we’ve been together from the time we met. how we almost had ‘the’ fight that would have ended our wedding but he refused to loose not only me but being my son’s father, to being my sole caretaker now that I’m very sick. All that is true love and the way you live love not just dream about it. It’s how you show love, not just how you talk about it’ It’s the little day to day things the happy times, the sad times, the good times the bad times and all the times inbetween. So the story I’m going to tell is my two “proposals”
My “boyfriend” and I had been dating for about 5 or 6 months, he had given me his Marine ring and was wearing my high school ring. He had to take my ring off at work to avoid injury. He eventually lost that ring, though I was a little sad and upset it was not the end of my world as I planned to get my college ring.
One day he insisted we go looking for another ring. I was resistant but he was adament. In the few years since I had bought my ring the price had tripled!! there was no way I was going to let him spend that kind of money on a ring I was not even going to wear much or even at all and suggested we just go.
The store clerk asked us if we wanted to see something else and of course I said no and my future hubby said yes….I looked at him all confused and he said “we would like to see some engagement rings and wedding sets” I looked back at him and said “we would??” and he answered “Yeah we would………..wouldn’t we?? We bought our sets that day and I wore my engagement ring home as I walked on clouds………..I told him he was really inventive in getting away with not “really” asking me to marry him and he had until our 25th wedding anniversary to do so, or I just might leave him LOL…….(okay so not so romantic right? well I’m getting there)
Just before our 25th anniversay my husband took me out to dinner to one of my favorite restaurants. chandeliers, candles on the tables, violins in the backgrounds wonderful food etc………we placed our order and then he ordered some wine (he never drings wine) but this was a really sweet wine. The wine was poured and my husband got up and came around the table got down on he’s knees and said “Cathie I never want you to leave me because we belong together now and always even heaven wouldn’t be heaven without you. Will you marry me and he opened a box with another “engagement” ring in it. Well I said yes and we went to Puerto Rico for our second honeymoon
We were in high school on the school rowing team. The team went on a trip for a rowing competition and I rode in a car with the a couple of the guys. Once we got to the other town, one of the guys in the car I was in, who I had dated briefly, didn’t want to hang out with all the other rowers and I did. So he went his separate way and I went with the crowd in another car. I ended up sitting on the lap of someone because it was so crowded. It turned out to be another guy named “Steve”, on the rowing team of course, a guy I had seen around but he was always very quiet and shy. We all went out for dinner and he sat next to me, and then paid for my dinner. He seemed very nice and we just hung out for a lot of the time when we weren’t rowing. On the way home, I ended up riding back in the car with him – instead of the other guy who I had dated because he was acting like a jerk to everyone. After getting back to our town then “Steve” asked if I’d like to go out to a movie. Well to make a long story short, we went to the movie, eventually got married at a young age and have been together every since – going on 38 years!! I guess you could say we “rowed off into the sunset”. 🙂
At 13 I walked into the corner grocery and there he was. A sweet blond surfer boy, living in Ohio. The blue eyed 18 year old worked behind the counter. I giggled and told my cousin that I was going to marry him some day.
Five years later, as I cruised up and down Main Street in my mom’s 65′ Chevy, I saw him again. I motioned for him to follow me to the park. We talked and then he asked me out.
On our first date I asked him for a penny. He gave me one and I told him that when we get married I was going to put the penny in my shoe. Six months later I walked down the aisle with that penny in my shoe.
I still have my penny and that sweet boy, 40 years later.
My husband and I are both musicians. Fittingly, we met at a music camp in Panama City, FL–Harmony Bay. Each camp session was a week long. I had been there the week before we met; I was the piano accompanist for the camp choir. When the week ended, the camp directors asked me to stay an extra week to be a cabin counselor. He came that week as a camper (yes, I am a year older!). So…my “campers” were almost my age! His former girlfriend (they met at camp the year before) was in MY cabin and she introduced us. It was a glorious week of getting to know each other–playing pranks, having long talks. The next year we wrote each other every week; in the spring, his college choir came from Florida (where he was in college) to Texas (where I was in college). I took a bus from Waco to Dallas to hear the choir. His host family insisted he borrow their car to take me out. We went out for blueberry pancakes ( a tradition we kept for many anniversaries) and when he kissed me goodnight, he said “may this be the first of many more”. It’s been 45 years; two wonderful children an six grandchildren later, we are still so in love and every day is full of music and joy.
My husband and I were highschool sweethearts. Then like a lot of boys the Navy and seeing the world sounded great. He went into the Navy and we went our seperate ways. Then 46 years later he started trying to locate me via the internet. He did get my phone number and called. He came to see me the next day. We were only 2 1/2 hours apart. When he got there it was like we had never been apart. Soul mates for sure. We have been together ever since.
I met my girlfriend and the love of my life online like some others. The only difference? I met her on a forum for one of my favorite games. At the time she and I were participating in a guessing game on one of the threads and she had gotten the answer before me. I was talking to a friend about it and at first I thought she was a guy! Mind you, she had a display pic that was not of herself.
In any case, my friend pointed me to a profile of hers listing all her favorite games, shows, and a picture of her. Seeing some games that I greatly enjoyed, I felt I HAD to contact her, at least for the purpose of just being friends. I wrote her a message, trying my best not to offend. To my surprise she responded and we starting talking on messenger.
We immediately hit it off and I decided that I would visit her that following Valentine’s day. All the way from Wisconsin to Georgia. A year later we moved in together and hoping to get married soon!
Nick and I met in high school. My best friend was dating his best friend and they thought we would like each other. We all went on a double date to a movie and I drove. The only thing I remember about the date is Nick complained about my driving! We never spoke after that date.
8 years later, I was living in a town about 15 minutes from my hometown and going to college. Nick’s brother had plans with my roommate to meet for drinks so I thought I’d tagalong. Nick ended up showing up as well. When I asked him how he was, he told me great now that he got to see his future wife again! We then pretended that we had just gotten engaged and had our picture takedn with santa! We’ve been together 5 years now and still going strong.
At the fairly young age of 42, my wife suddenly dropped dead of a sudden heart attack. I was devastated. We had twenty years together and figured we had at least fifty more years to spend loving each other and sharing our lives. She was there one minute and gone the next. Not even a chance to say “good-bye.”
After a day or so of discovering a part of me that could cry, I realized that staying in the house we shared only added to my misery so I forced myself to go back to work. I figured that by concentrating on work, I could keep myself composed and not think about what life was going to be like without her. I was only moderately successful.
During the next few months, I found the office of the CFO to be a good refuge when I would break down and start sobbing. She was sympathetic and didn’t mind providing me a place to get myself together and find composure. We became good friends but what I didn’t realize was that she was watching me and wishing her husband loved her as much as I had obviously loved my wife. I think it was a situation similar to the plot of the movie “Message in a Bottle” where a man sent out love notes in the ocean to his late wife and a woman would get hold of them and wish someone loved her as much as this man had obviously loved his wife.
At company social gatherings, I would teasingly ask her husband if she had a sister as beautiful and intelligent as she was. She was a tall natural blond from the Midwest and I found myself very attracted to her.
After a couple of years, we went our separate ways, but still stayed in touch with each other as friends and job references. About eight years later she called and told me how her husband had left her. By then I was more than ready to try to find love again and a partner to again share my life with so I asked her out.
We began dating and after a few months, I asked her to marry me. Unfortunately, she now needed time to recover from the loss of her marriage. Not to be dissuaded, I began asking her to marry me almost on a daily basis.
After five more years of dating and being romanced, I guess I finally convinced her I was serious and she was ready. She agreed so I took her out for a night on the city and then got on my knee and proposed formally and she accepted. We joke about whether she really wanted to marry me or I just wore her down. In either case, we have been happily married for eight years now. Some men consider themselves lucky to find love once in their lives, I have done it twice.