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’d dated lots of men, and none of them were very satisfactory. Nick didn’t seem that great, either, but he’d do, for the time. He had one good thing going for him–when I said I didn’t like something, and that he had to change, he did. Well, at least he tried, really, really hard. So I kept dating him. And he made major, major changes, in how he behaved, in how he thought about things, in how he felt about, well, pretty much everything. Then one day I asked him to change somethingg (I don’t even remember what it was anymore!), and he said “No.” He said “This is who I am, I won’t change that. Take it or leave it.” At that very moment, I fell in love. I knew then that I not only had a guy who would do everything in his power to make me happy, but also a man who had a solid core. A man who could prioritize, and knew what hill to die on. We’ve been married now over 35 years, and are still each other’s best friend.
My story begins very simply. After being widowed and losing a son within a year, I decided it was not good to sit and be lonesome. I began to go to square and round dance clubs and have some enjoyment. To find a male partner is not an easy thing – women latch onto them very quickly.
I then decided to join Match.com to see if I could possible find a dance partner or at least a gentleman who would be willing to learn. I had been on the site about a year and although I met several good pen pals, they seemed to live all over this U S of A. I had thought I would give it one more month and then drop out of the website.
I arrived home after work one evening and checked my email before going to a dance. I had signed up for Venus, a computer who did all the matching on the website. Lo and behold I had a notification that I had a 100% match (I had only had 80% previously) and to check out the profile.
The profile started out “Knock, Knock, Are you there?” and followed with all his details. He did match me very well, so I wrote him starting with “Knock, Knock, guess who.” I received a reply then next morning and after numerous messages we met at a coffee shop, went to a Park for a walk and I do not think I had laughed so hard in years. Such funny stories he did tell. I found a great love, a wonderful companion, and a soul mate.
I retired shortly after we met and the transition was easier, since he had retired the year before. We were married on the beach in Maui a couple of years later and have since traveled, enjoyed life, and had a great time. The 100% match worked out fantastically and the last twelve years have been, as Tony the Tiger says “Just Great”.
My step-father and my husband were married to sisters once in another life long ago. They stayed in touch and one day my husband (of 17 years now) came to visit. I was 30 and he was 50. He had been divorced for five years and I had never married. We spent the next day together and by the end of the day, I knew we would be together forever. We met in May and were married in August that same year. Our love has grown and matured and it’s a beautiful relationship, even if our love story is somewhat unique.
I met Chuck when I was working as a waitress in a small cafe in a University neighborhood. At first, I disliked him, thought he was quite arrogant. After he kept asking me out, I finally agreed, just to shut him up. I had planned to stand him up, figuring my room mate would get rid of him for me. Unbeknown to us, he was outside the door, listening to us argue. Sue refused to lie and I did go out with him. We went to a frat party. As we were dancing, I felt as though I found the man I wanted to be with the rest of my life. Two weeks later, we decided to get married, and in June, six months later, it happened. No one, in either family, or our friends thought it would last. Including Sue, my maid of honor.
We had our ups and downs. We had three great kids and 5 grandkids. We were best friends and soul mates. He died just before our forty-fourth anniversary. We worked at our marriage and out family. And we knew that we were very, very lucky. I miss him still.
In December of 1984, I was a single-mom in my mid-thirties, wistfully contemplating another Christmas without a boy friend, when my neighbor coerced me into attending a party with her. I’d planned to go to the movies instead. “Paris, Texas” was playing — I loved Wim Wenders; but my stars were aligned to favor another Texas crossroads lying dead ahead — on this path, no movie theaters were involved.
At the party, my shyness set in. I asked my neighbor if we couldn’t please leave and go to the movies instead. She said, “You aren’t even trying. We’re not leaving without talking to some guys. There’s a group over there,” and pointed to three men chatting nearby. I said, “Okay. I get the blond one.”
The Blond One turned out to be from Texas; he talked to me all evening about music and books. As the party wound down and we walked to my car, he gave me a sweet, simple kiss. He called me the next day.
On our first date, after I told him my favorite musicians were Emmylou Harris and Bruce Springsteen, we spent the rest of the date in a record store, then a book store. I fell in love with him two weekends later when I looked at him from across the room at a Christmas party and realized I was proud of him. I fell even more in love with him while we read “Lonesome Dove” together in bed.
A year after we met, we married on Christmas Eve. Nine months and two days after that, we presented my teenage daughter with a new little sister. My heart still beats irregularly when I see him from across a room, still blond, still sweet, still Texan. I “got the blond one,” indeed.
I met my husband in a very unusual way. He was my son’s Big Brother.
That is where my story begins.
When my older son, Travis, turned 8 he was eligible for the “Big Brothers Big Sisters” program and since I was a single mom of 3 children I decided it would be wonderful to have a man in my son’s life that would be a good influence. When I signed him up I never stated that the man had to be a certain age, race or even that the man be single but Someone had other plans for me.
Ralph was 34 years old, single and a CPA when he chose Travis to be his “little brother”. Later he told me that he almost didn’t sign up except a flyer that was taped to the window of his office kept flagging his attention to do something.
He was so good with all of my kids and always made sure that Travis brought something home for his sister and brother if he and Ralph went out somewhere. He even took the entire family to Washington D.C and DisneyWorld so that Travis could enjoy his whole family having fun.
Ralph also decided to spend an extra day each week with Travis, over and above the normal time required, so that he could tutor him with his homework. This is when I got to know Ralph a little more because he would stay for dinner and talk with me for about an hour after the kids were in bed.
As the months passed I began to see this man who was kind, considerate, caring and very generous in a different way. It just came on so gradually that I couldn’t tell you when I started to fall for him. As a single mom it crosses your mind that your kids might not like the guy you are dating so I always kept my social life separate from my family life. The neat thing was that my kids adored Ralph long before I felt anything special for him.
We met Ralph as a Big Brother on April 8, 1987. Ralph and I were married on December 22, 1988. Travis was Ralph’s Best Man and my daughter was my Maid of Honor; my younger son was the ring bearer. I truly believe our relationship has lasted because we were such good friends first and the kids welfare was our primary concern.
It only took two or three days.
Paul and I met in high school. We never dated, but were close friends for the two years we were in school together. We loved to do one thing especially…
…no not that we were just kids!
The favorite activity of which I speak was to pop in an Eighties Movie (Breakfast Club being our favorite) and eat Rainbow Nerds and drink Tahitian Treat Fruit Punch Soda.
There was one night I’ll never forget. We were just lying in the floor talking, and I remember feeling something I couldn’t quite name at the time. It was something good, something comforting, something just out of my understanding at the time. I would later find out that he was having the exact same feeling.
Paul moved away for college and we led our own separate lives for 7 years. Then in November of 2008, Paul living in North Carolina and me in Colorado, he called me. Out of the blue. We talked for three hours, then decided that we should take a breather. The breather didn’t last long because that night we talked for three more. It went this way for several weeks. However, it didn’t take long for both of us to realize that life had spent those seven years teaching us all the lessons we needed to learn in order to live together and love each other.
We were both finally able to put a name to that feeling we had felt as kids two and a half years ago. We felt it again when we reconnected after seven years. We felt it again on the day we got married, May 15, 2009.
The feeling was one of unity.
We’d both known since that one specific day back when we were just kids that we would be together, we just didn’t know that’s what we were feeling then.
And it only took two or three days he felt he needed to call me again after all those years for us to know that our lives had always been, and would always be, meant to be lived together.
I met my husband (of 16 years now) when we were 18 in a nightclub. He saw me entering the nightclub and follow me, after a couple of minutes he asked me to dance, we danced and talked all night at the end of the night, he asked me for my number. He called me three days after we met and we talked over the phone for more than a month before we went out again. We were young but knew we were meant to be together after a year we got married. He helped me finished college while he was working two jobs and after six years of marriage we had our son. We been together 17 years and we still crazy for each other. He makes me feel the most beautiful woman and he is the best dad.
My story is actually sort of funny…well, some people might find it funny. Others will find it just plain creepy.
He was this musician I found over the internet, believe it or not. And he lived in Canada (I live in Pennsylvania) but I knew as soon as I saw him perform, that he was the one.
A couple months passed and I got the opportunity to go on a book tour to celebrate right releases in Canada…coincidentally right in Vancouver where he resided. So once we got there, I got my PR to track down his contact information and we asked him if he could “provide” entertainment for us. He put on a splendid performance, and I’m sure I’m not the only lady who fell in love with him that night!
All the collaboration made us get to know each other better, and nine years later, here we are, happily married for almost six years now!
I guess I sort of knew I was going to marry him from the beginning. But that makes are marriage all the more romantic.
A co-worker told me about Max, said they were ‘done with him, I could have him.’ Their litany of complaints about him included needs too much attention, always in trouble, doesn’t listen. Not great recommendations. But I was willing to chance it. The first time we met, I knew instantly he was the one for me. Brown eyes, short black hair….his gentle kiss sealed our love. He was my first Labrador Retriever, a loving companion for over 12 years.
My boyfriend and I are proof that you can meet people on the internet! Just over 6 years ago, I decided to contact people listed on a certain minority religion website, just looking for friends in my area with similar interests. I emailed about 5 or 6 people. Only one responded. And he was on vacation at the time. In New Zealand. We emailed back and forth for nearly two months before deciding to meet in person. The first time I saw him, I just thought, “My god, is he hot!” I had a friend along, for safety sake, and the three of us spent the night bar hopping and having a great time. The whole night I wanted to kiss him but was chicken. As he was walking us back to my car at the end of the night, I told him that there was something I had wanted to do all night, but was too scared. He said to go ahead so I just grabbed him and planted one on him! He must have felt the same way because he kissed me a second time and then asked if I wanted to come back over the next day and meet his friends. I accepted. We spent that next day just hanging out at his friend’s house. On the third day, Sunday, I had to leave to go to a job interview four hours away. He called me before I even made it to my destination that day. That night while laying in bed I kept asking myself how I could miss someone so much when I just met them. After the interview on Monday, I talked to him on the phone for nearly the whole drive back and took a detour to go see him again. We’ve been inseparable ever since.
I had been divorced for 7 years when my girlfriend asked me to join her in a chat room on a Sat. AM. I was not into that scene but thought “what the heck”. After being bombarded by all sorts of inappropriate IMs, a gentleman (in every sense of the word) sent one. After about 20 minutes of back and forth, he wanted a picture – I sent one of me with my 18 yr old son hugging me (a sure deterrent to many men). We ended up talking on the phone the next day for over an hour. We hadn’t gotten into backgrounds in detail, so I asked him where he grew up etc. He was born in a small town in PA – the very same town where I grew up. We talked every day for weeks – me in NC and he in VA. We met several months later – sparks flew. As we got to know more about our families we found that his mother’s cousin was the grandfather of my brother’s best friend (and my other “little brother). We knew that if we had met years before we probably would not have clicked. We had different likes – music, travel, and food. He said he knew I was the one when he saw my picture that Sat morning. It took me slightly longer – when my 3 yr old grandson climbed into his lap and asked him to read to him within the first hour together. He proposed on a Christmas Eve after he hid the ring in the tree – I missed it even after rearranging ornaments all around it. Nine years later, he still hides things on me and my grandson has graduated to riding on the back of the Harley. Now I listen to country, he loves Broadway. He travels to spend time when I am away on long business assignments. I have been to Reno and Vegas with him and he has discovered NYC, my birthplace. He has met and learned to enjoy my nurse friends and I his Harley buddies. We still laugh and cry together, hug, argue, drive each other crazy, and love every minute.
I like to think of myself as a mail order bride! I put a singles ad in the Oklahoma Gazette newspaper over 24 years ago. My husband was the first guy to answer my ad. He wrote me a letter and said, I read your ad and I think I’m your man! I thought to myself the audacity of such a man! LOL I went out with him and then told him, I wanted to go out with every guy that answers and have some fun.
Nonetheless 6 months later, I called him back and asked him if he remembered me and he did; we went out again and one year later we got married on Valentine’s Day 1987.
He is my best friend and knight in shining armor. I don’t know what I would do without him.
I was going to summer school in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota. Every year there is an event called The Days of ’76 in Deadwood. All of us in the chemistry class decided to take it in after we convinced our professor to cancel class the following Monday!
We started out in a cave that housed the Inferno bar. One of my classmates introduced me to a good looking dude who was home on leave from the army. As they say, the rest is history! We have been married for 43 1/2 years!
The train was hot & dusty from Fez to Casablanca. The month was August. The heat, hot in that Holy Month of Ramadan.
The family I had been staying with had asked of a young local doctor, also on the train, spoke English to make sure I’d be ok back as far as his stop would allow. He had another physician friend who only knew the mother tongues, French & Arabic. He had dark, expressive eyes. He was not shy when he looked at me.
The friend asked of the other to watch for me when we arrived in “Casa”. My words in French were few, save those scattered & garnered from a pocket French phrasebook. We had a spartan, yet electric conversation. Words thrown out, needed to be translated. Dark eyes watching mine. Watching my finger point to the words on the page. Heat from the air; heat from his eyes.
He had the taxi stop at my hotel, but alas the Moroccan law forbade those unmarried to share a room. He’d only wanted to see me for a movie that night.
For the next night and the next, scattered French phrases tossed down from the phrasebook. Quick kisses after dark; after the sun had set and Muslim law would be followed. Somewhat. He wanted to marry me, live in Morocco.
Went home to pink pages of French, written in black ink. He would have to disobey his family & risk marrying a Western girl. He bade me to come back to Morocco. “Je t’aime”, my dark-eyed doctor scribed.
I did go back. And I was his. But, I would not, could not live there, marry him, as I was too well used to my Western ways, my freedom as a woman. I could not, would not give up any part of my freedom, of me to live there year-round, every year.
Learn English, as I have taught myself French for you, I implored those dark eyes. We can live anywhere with your skill, your profession. I left Morocco, left my Dark Eyes behind.
Drowned myself in books, in my job to forget. Pink pages came. Scattered French phrases. Je t’aime.
Years later. A phone call. English. French accent. “Je t’aime, my love. I have never forgotten you. I have spent these few years learning English. For you. For us. I have finally made my family see that I would marry no one else but you, Muslim or not. They have forgiven me. They long to meet you. I have acquired a Visa for the States. I will be arriving in June. Please meet with me then…”, Dark Eyes implored.
I looked at the ring on my left hand, my swollen belly, “too late.” I said. “Je de’sole’, I am sorry”…
It started with a song. In the 1980s, he came to town for a conference hosted by my office. Staff was told to take attendees from all over the country to dinner and show off our city. I picked a guy who looked a bit lonely standing at the top of the stairs in the hotel lobby. After dinner, we went to a club to hear music. I tapped him on the shoulder, pointed at someone across the room and said “I know what I am, and what I am is a man and so is Lola” – he got it. Our initial attraction was around music. At dinner the next night, we discovered we had the same birth date. It was a “Twilight Zone” moment. He went back home, we wrote letters, had a few phone calls. It ended after several months because he had commitments that didn’t allow him to come back and be with me.
Slightly more than 25 years later, a familiar name popped up in my work email. He’d been listening to a song that reminded him of me and decided to wish me an early happy birthday. We still live in different states, he still has many of the same commitments, but we’ve been emailing for over two years now, trying to decide what’s next. He’s not a risk taker. I’m the dreamer. It’s not a traditional “love affair” with a happy ever after ending, but we’re both smiling more than we have in a long time, and thrilled to be discovering more about each other than we had time to do in our first brief acquaintance. A feeling floods through me for no reason sometimes that tells me we’re in sync; I don’t always know why. It’s just a “magical connection.” (That’s a song.)
I was divorced and very leery of dating and men. As a Christian, I wanted God’s will in my life. Each night, in my prayers, I would say to God…”God, if you have someone for me, would you please send him to find me” After much dating and not finding “Mr. Right”, I was sort of resigned to the fact that I may spend the rest of my life alone. I went to church one snowy morning, the roads were slick and many cars were stuck along the way, but my little Nisson just chugged right on along to church. When I walked in, a friend said to me, “See the young man talking to my husband? I’d like to introduce you to him after church if that’s OK.”. I thought “Here we go…another matchmaker”, but not wanting to be rude, I said “Sure”. The young man was quite handsome, but I’d had my share of men who thought they were “God’s Gift to Women” so wasn’t too impressed by his good looks. She introduced us after church and I was quite cool towards him, and when he asked if he could call, I told him my number was in the book. Well, he did call, and we talked on the phone almost every night for a month, finding we had a great deal in common. But I always refused to go out with him. Then one night he told me that when he came to my church that morning, he had come to meet me, even though he had never seen me before. His friends had told him they knew someone there they thought he may like to meet. He also told me that he had asked God to help him find a mate..A Christian woman to share his life with. Shortly after that, we had our first date and three weeks later we got married. God answered my prayer and sent him to find me, even though he had never laid eyes on me before, nor me him. We got married on April Fools’s Day and it will be 20 years ago on April 1, 2011. God answered both our prayers and we couldn’t be happier about that.
It all started in the office I was working in. I was a divorced mother of two. My girls were my world and the last thing I was looking for was to get into another relationship. I became friendly with a male co-worker in the office. It was nice to have someone to talk to on a regular basis that I got along so well with. We stayed friends and co-workers for about a year before we went on our first “real date”. We went out to lunch and it is still up for discussion as to who made the first move… Needless to say, we started a romantic relationship that day and have been going strong ever since!
We dated for about 2 years and started watching ‘Amazing Race’ as a family from the start of our relationship. When we got engaged, my husband planned a ‘Race’ for my daughters and I to go on to different spots around our home and neighborhood. We had clues to guess and had to write our answers on an answer key he made up. With our last clue, we ended at a local park where he was waiting for us with a blank sheet of paper with holes cut out on it. When you held the answer key up to it, it spelled out “will you marry me?” and he was on his knee with an engagement ring. My girls and I were screaming with excitement! He had wine for us and sparkling juice for the girls to celebrate!
We got married the following year. He is a terrific husband to me and stepfather to my girls. We have now been married for almost 5 years and I couldn’t ask for a more wonderful friend and husband!
IT WAS A WICKED RAINY DAY IN VAN NUYS CA AND I WAS WAITING BY THE BUSTOP FOR THE BUS TO WORK. AS I HELD MY UMBRELLA,OUT OF THECORNER OF MY EYE, I SPIED A CUTE GUY IN A RED HODDY. I SAID TO HEM :\” WOULD YOU LIKE TO SHARE MY UMBRELLA?” HE SAID YES AND WE STARTED TO TALK. I FOUND MYSELF MESMIIRIZED BY THE WAY HIS LIP CURLED AS HE SPOKE AND HIS LONG ISLAND ACCENT.
WHEN WE BOARDE THE BUS,HE EXPLAINED THAT HIS CAR WAS IN THE SHOP BUT LATER I FOUND OUT,IT WAS REPOSESED. HE ASKED FOR MY NUMBER. “BUT i HAVE A BOYFRIEND” I SAID LOUDLY AND ALL THE OCCUPANTS OF THE BUS TURNED AND STARED. WE BOTH WENT TO WORK BUT WE COULDNT STOP THINKING OF EACH OTHER.
THE NEXT DAY I WROTE A DEAR JOHN LETTER TO MY BOYFRIEND AND LESTER AND i HAVE BEEN TOGETHER EVER SINCE. ITS BEEN 20 YEARS AND WE ARE SO COMPATIBLE,HAPPY AND IN TUNED TO EACH OTHER. PEOPLE THINK WE ARE TWIN SOULS BECAUSE WE ALWAYS KNOW WHAT THE OTHER IS THINKING,FEELING OR GOING TO SAY.
OF COURSE OUR SONG IS ” BUS sTOP ” BY THE hOLLIES AS IT TELLS THE STORY OF OUR ROMANCE
ALYCE KINIKIN
In May 2006, after the breakup of my second long term relationship (8 yrs on the first and 5 years on the second) I took the summer to live alone and just be me and take care of myself for a change, to do the things that came to my own mind and not worry about anyone else. On Sept 1, 2006, not expecting anything but trying to be open minded, I slowly went through the entire eHarmony sign up process. I had just celebrated my 36th birthday the week before and really wanted a child but was beginning to worry that I was running out of time to really meet the right person (this time!) because they were the right person and not because I was ready to be a parent. I had quite a few matches right away but was really hesitant until I started thru the contact process with “Jason” on Sept 6. I really liked all that I read about him but we all know that just because someone sounds good on paper doesnt always mean its the real deal. He was a definite and positive departure from my previous choices and I was eagerly intrigued not only by his answers to my questions but also by the questions he asked me. The next thing I knew we had an “instant message” date for Friday evening, Sept 8th. We instant messaged on the computer until well after 2am and then again the next day and the next night as well. Sunday we moved over to the cell phone and talked for so long that I went thru 2 cell phone batteries and finally switched to my land line. Even though he lived an hour and ten minutes away from me, he didnt care. When we had our first face-to-face date about 10 days later, my friends were worried for me and I wanted to be smart. We had a plan, I was to call 30 minutes after the expected start time of our date to let my friends know that I was safe but also if it was going well or poorly. Our code was that if it was going poorly, I was to say I needed to stop and buy some Chunky Monkey ice cream on the way home… well of course, I ended up enjoying my date so much that 30 minutes flew by in what felt like 30 seconds and my friend had to call me to make sure I hadnt been abducted by a serial killer…. and of course she wanted to know if I needed any Chunky Monkey ice cream. At that point my face already hurt from smiling so much at Jason and his company that my stomach started aching from laughing over the whole thing- the look on his face when I had to tell her I didnt need any Chunky Monkey ice cream was priceless and I filled him in on the whole story. To this day, each of our kids has had some kind of monkey outfit and we laugh out loud whenever we see the Ben & Jerrys ice cream brand. Needless to say, by Christmas he had not only moved in with me but also proposed. On a beautiful beach in Puerta Vallarta, Mexico, we were married on March 29, 2007, I gave birth to our daughter on April 27, 2008 and then our son on Sept 23, 2010. From a technical “time by the clock” point of view everything happened very fast, however to us it seemed that we had been waiting for each other for years and years and our lives clicked together as if they had always been that way. The true meaning of “soulmate” was clear as glass for us. There is nothing we wouldnt do for each other and I look forward to waking up next to my husband every day until I die. 🙂
Where to start…this story doesn’t have an end, at least not yet. Hopefully it will though, hopefully. It’s been a never ending quest to find my one true love, a quest I prefer not to have gone through for so long. I’m hoping that they saying, “Good things come to those who wait”, is true because I have waited almost 26 years for my other half and have yet to find him. This story is more of a story of hope.
Every year I see couples out on Valentine’s Day, holding hands, getting that glazed over look in their eyes, and every year I hurt inside on this day, wondering why can’t that be me? Where is my love? What’s wrong with me that I can’t find him? Some days I’m glad I can’t find him, but most days I wonder if he just refused to ask for directions to my house and ended up in Texas or something.
But this year, I won’t feel so bad. I may not have found my one, but I have found my many. I have many men whom I call my “brothers”. These men are of no blood relation to me, but they have become my family and I have grown to love them all dearly. I’ve worked with them for the past two years and we have all formed a family like bond between us. They know me as well as my own family. We’ve had our ups and downs and our fights and our celebrations just like any couple or family. And the few guys that I’ve thought about possibly dating where quickly ruled out by my “brothers” who have my best interest in mind when I tend to forget that I have a mind of my own.
So this year, I may be single relationship wise, and I may not have my other half yet, but eventually I’ll find him. Until then, I am happy with my “many”, my “brothers”, who though they won’t give me a gift this year (they’re men, they’re luck to remember to get gifts for their own wives and girlfriends), they already have. They gave me a gift of knowing I’m cared about and loved this Valentine’s Day, and that we have a bond that mot people wouldn’t understand unless they worked in our line of work.
As for now, the search continues, but I can wait. I’ll find my other half one day. I just know when I find him he’ll be questioned by my “brothers”, and I’m beginning to think maybe that’s why he’s taking so long!
My husband Pete and I met as college students when he needed help driving a car from Chicago to Massachusetts. He knew my parents lived in the Chicago suburbs and asked if I’d be willing to travel to get the vehicle. He sent me notes counting down the days until we left on our “Great Adventure.” Pretty much everything that could go wrong did. We had to wait for the train in the rain, there were no pillows, the crew was working a double shift and very crabby, there was a mouse skittering through the car that caused certain passengers to scream… Our train ride took 23 hours, so we had plenty of time to get to know each other.
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle is my favorite book and Pete had never read it. While he drove north through Michigan, I read aloud to him. Then, in Canada it was my turn to drive and when people slammed on their brakes due to a construction zone, I hit the car in front of us. Whether it was my sobbing apologies or the fact that it was Canadian Thanksgiving or both, I don’t know, but the kindly police officer sent us on our way without a ticket with the caveat that we could not drive in the dark due to a broken headlight.
Guess where we spent the night? Niagara Falls! We didn’t see the falls, but as we drove onto campus Pete remarked, “we haven’t finished the book yet, so I guess I should come over tonight for the next chapter.” Now we’re looking forward to sharing it with our ten year old as our Great Adventure continues!
We met in 2005. He was a freshman in college, I was a sophomore. We were both in Calculus II together, and I was eating in the cafeteria with my friend. All of a sudden, this guy sits down with us and starts talking math and asking homework questions. Eventually, he became part of our group and we studied together all the time. At this point, I was still in a relationship with a hateful, abusive guy. We would fight, and eventually, the cafeteria math geek became my confidant. We became fast friends; even faster, we fell in love. He and I would spend long nights walking the campus, all the while he would lift my spirits after some fight or other with the abusive guy. I was too afraid to leave the guy; every time I tried, he would threaten me or himself. Eventually, the math geek finally gave me enough confidence to end it, and I have never looked back. Three years later, he proposed with a beautiful ring strategically placed in the collar of a stuffed cat he got me on our first Valentine’s Day together. We just got married this past June, and I could not be happier. This man understands me like nobody else has and I have never once regretted any step on the path that led me to him.
The only thing that sets my little story apart is that is DOES have an ending….
I met the true love of my life when I was 15 years old — save your comments, we were BEST friends until I was 21 years old. We were each other’s support system through many relationships before we realized WE were ‘meant to be’. I think those years spent as friends (simply friends) built a very strong friendship as a foundation. As time passed and we matured in relationships with other people, we found a time in space where our hearts crossed our life paths.
We began our life together with as much passion intertwined in our respect for each other. If we heard it once, we heard it a million times over…”you 2 were made for each other, glad you 2 finally figured it out”. Literally a fairy tale come true….even more so when our son and daughter were born to complete our perfect ALL American family. We shared 9 years together in the solitude of a ‘perfect world’. Everyday with that wonderful man and the 2 angels sent to us would start and end with a ‘pinch’…it REALLY was like a dream. For BOTH children, he sent roses to my work place….one rose for each month of the pregnancy (the ONLY time you hope like he// you don’t make it to a ‘dozen’). He had a romantic touch for suprises with jewelry and weekend getaways. The ONE percent of the male population that actually went out of his way to help with household chores, volunteering at school with the kids, actually cooking for my family members (yep, even MY mom).
That beautiful dream ended with the sound of the awaking words from him….”I’m gay”.
You heard me. Out of the blue….he took a sharp left turn off of the path we had begun together.
After about 6 months of working through the shock and (naturally) anger….I was ready to pull the “dawn” I would like my children to be proud of and decided to let ALL of that go and move forward.
Gay-straight-bi-sexual-whatever. Bottom line, he has ALWAYS been a good friend to me….no question, an excellent father. Salvaging the friendship was the best way to gain a positive prospective on it, for my own sanity as well as for my beautiful babies. No matter what, that man will always be the “love of my life”. He has been the BEST friend a girl can ask for! A wonderful husband (setting the ‘gay’ ending to the side). And, hello….bonus I was able to share precious time and space with him to not only have WONDERFUL memories of a loving companionship for almost a decade, but also to bring 2 perfect children into this CRAZY world. I have the priviledge in sharing these precious lives with a strong co-parent now that will ensure the security of their well-being…mentally, physically, emotionally, etc. You can’t place a price on that type of universal gift!
We both worked to nuture that friendship beyond that damage and have been able to evolve that passionate love into a bond that goes beyond any Hallmark card catagory. We get teased ALOT from our friends and family. We are known in our little small town as the “local Will and Grace”. Which is fine. I don’t care what people think…it works for us….and our children benefit most from our ‘evolved platonic love’. Let ’em talk. I’d go to the ends of the earth for that man….without a doubt, I know he wouldn’t hesitate to do the same for me….which is saying ALOT, we have been divorced for 11 years!
To have him in my life to share SO many miracles of life, love and all it’s mysteries not only means I have been blessed….I have TRULY been DIVINELY FAVOURED!
Our love story is short and EASY! We met, when we were young and both employed at the Red Robin restaurant. It was instant for both of us! 6 months after meeting, we requested Valentine’s Day off, and we eloped in Vegas! We bougth those cheapie airfare bargains out of the newspaper, and off we went! 13 years later, and 2 kids…we’re still going strong! He’s a helicopter pilot for the Army and I’m a stay at home Mom. We’re all (kids, too) voravious readers and ADORE our Paper Back Swap!! Thanks for listening!
I married when I was only 16 to my high school sweetheart the marriage lasted 12 years and two kids later. I was to only find that my heart had been broken by his infidelity. Being a person who believes in family and love I eventually married my 2nd husband but withing 4 years that too would end. Now I am on my 3rd husband with almost 12 years more of marriage behind me but this too has proven to be a misconception. The whole marriage was nothing but lies he has cheated on me the whole time with his ex girlfriend. As much as he likes to lie I had to put a private eye on him to make him face reality. Then in 2007 I got up the courage to confront him and he had no option but to confess to his misdeeds. I tried to end the marriage but he is determined that he won’t leave so I decided in my mind that the marriage was over anyway. So I have lived with a man that I don’t love for sometime now just because it was easier than going through the divorce. But now I know I have met a man worth more than any other man I had ever met. In April 2007 I was relocated in my job and the first day he walked in it through me for a loop when he walked up and said “So whats for lunch”? I thought that was strange is this man trying to ask me out to lunch. For 3 years he would stop by and we would make small talk then all of a sudden one night I had a dream about him. I dreamt he was lying next to me in bed and we were kissing and it was fantastic. In my dream I then saw my husband walk in and asked what is going on I said he’s doing what you don’t so get out. The next day I told my friend I had a dream about you. He never asked what the dream was about. Two months go by and my friend walks in and says I had a dream about you. I said I hope it was good and he smiled saying it sure was the next thing I know he asked me what my dream was about and I told him. After that we flirted for about 4 months bakc and forth. Then it happened on June 25, 2010 my birthday he showed up with a birthday card for me and I jokingly said does that card come with a kiss. He looked around to see if anyone was in the office and quickly said yes. My heart started beating real fast. There was one older gentleman in the lobby so he waited what seemed like a life time for the man to leave. I then opened the door to my office and he came in and gave me a kiss that made my 49th birthday the best ever. I was like a little kid my heart started racing so fast and I was so excited as to what had transpired. It was like fireworks going off that’s when I knew that someday I would get out the marriage that I am in and he would be my man. Once again I went home and asked my husband to leave but he just won’t go and I am a little afraid of what he will do when I finally ask him to leave. It has now been 7 months since that last kiss but the flirting continued between us until 2 weeks ago when it happened again another wonderful kiss. I know it won’t go any further as long as I am married because this man is a real gentleman but how I wish I could find a way to get my husband to leave.
I was 12 and had a crush on my best friends cousin, but he was 10 years older and I was invisible. Then, at 16, I bought my first car and would follow him around town or once I flooded it out so I could go get him to start my car. Then, in May of my senior year, I was in town with Dad and he stopped to talk to Cary and his dad. At lunch, he asked his mom how old I was…she said “Old enough”, so he called me. I had always said I would “just die” if he ever asked me out-I thought I was going to! Three weeks later, he asked me to marry him and 10 weeks after that we had a church wedding with all the bells and whistles. That was almost 41 years ago and he is still the best looking, sexiest, sweetest man (and he adores me!)
Like a lot of other people out there, I have been going through a rough time in my marriage. I am on the path to divorce. I met someone, who is 500 miles and 8.5 hours away, on a social networking site who, like me, is experiencing the same troubles in her marriage and is too getting a divorce. We were nothing more than friends who share a common love for the same kinds of music, same kinds of books, movies and goals in life.
To make a long story short, after conversing back and forth and sharing many personal things, photos and stories with each other through emails, texts, phone calls, we have fallen in love with each other and are planning a life after we are both divorced. I firmly believe in “soul mates” and I believe Sue to be my soul mate. We haven’t met face to face as of yet because we both have agreed for us to see each other, even for a minute would make it harder for us to say goodbye until we can be together and start our journey in life as a couple. I am very thankful that due to a passing comment, I have become in contact and fallen in love with the greatest woman in the world!
To those who think you can’t fall in love with someone online through a social networking site, contact me, I’ll tell you the whole story of how I met my true love and soul mate and it will at least make you think if not change your mind about it.
My husband and I met at a bowling alley on a Saturday night in October of 1990. I got up to bowl, retrieved my ball and got ready to go, as I looked to my left there was someone else on the lane next to me. So I stepped back and said “go ahead”; then he stepped back and said “no you go” – this banter went on for about a minute. When I said, “you are John Hoggan, H O G G A N (spelling it out)aren’t you?” He looked perplexed but replied “yes”. You see I worked at a local college and we didn’t use computers to record our grades, everything was handwritten and on the back of each transcript was a picture of the student, so I put a face to a name and sure enough it was him. We then laughed. I don’t remember who ended up going but that started our relationship. We ended the night and agreed to meet up for midnight bowling the next weekend, he with his friend and me with mine.
Unfortunately the next weekend he didn’t show. I was less than happy that I was stood up after our interesting Saturday night the week before, mind you we hadn’t had contact during the week and I didn’t have his number, we had just discussed meeting up the next weekend. When I got to work on Monday morning I got his number and gave him a call. The conversation went like this,
“So do you know who this is”?
His reply, “no”.
“Well you didn’t show Saturday night at the bowling alley, take a guess”, I replied.
As the conversation went on he apologized for standing me up and said he would meet me again the next weekend. He stood by his word and sure enough he showed. Now at this point I wasn’t interested in a relationship and neither was he. We were strictly friends. The 4 of us hung out together and had loads of fun. Then one day John and I started talking. We talked about what we would want from a serious relationship. What our family lives were like growing up. What we expected our lives to be like in the future. How many children we wanted. We both felt so comfortable talking with one another, it was great. No worries about a relationship, we were great friends. I never thought of him as a boyfriend, I could tell him anything.
Then, on the day before Christmas we took a trip to New York City, again the 4 of us. John and I ended up getting in an argument. We drove home from NYC without speaking a word to each other, he dropped me off and didn’t even say goodbye. I was angry, I couldn’t understand what I had done to upset my best friend. On Christmas day the doorbell rang, it was him. He had a present for me. I was confused. He said he was sorry for his behavior the day before. He said he went home and felt empty. I totally understood what he was saying. All that time I was happy that our relationship was strictly friends but I wasn’t seeing the forest through the trees. He was falling for me and I didn’t see it. As he pointed out how he felt empty the feeling resonated in my chest. That was exactly how I felt since he dropped me off the day before. How could I not see what was right in front of me. There was no intimacy but there certainly was a much deeper connection than I wanted to admit.
On New Year’s Eve 1990 we went on our first official date.
My cat and I moved in with him on January 5 1991.
On February 14, 1991 he handed me a poem that asked for my hand in marriage.
On June 27, 1992 we got married.
We have been married for 18 years and on every anniversary I get a new poem. I am glad that I was finally able to see the forest through the trees! This June we will celebrate our 19th anniversary. We reside in Upstate NY and have three wonderfull children.
The First Kiss-
I was throwing a party on Christmas eve 1982. She was a lonely single mom who had just sent her daughter two thousand miles away to visit her ex for the season. She was a member of our church group and I knew about her circumstance so I invited her to the party. When she arrived I greeted her at the front door and welcomed her. She thanked me for inviting her and usually upon greeting members of our church the men and woman exchange a kiss on the cheek with a small hug. This particular time (I think because she was so thankful I had thought of her) she planted a kiss right on my lips. I literally saw “star”. I almost fainted. Something happened to me inside that changed my life forever. We started dating and the next summer evening in front of a beautiful water fountain I knelt down and asked her to marry my. We have been married for 28 years and have 2 beautiful children.
sorry should say I saw “stars”
My husband and I met in college. We instantly clicked, and got married a little over two years later. That was in June 2004. My husband is an Army officer, and he deployed in December 2004 for a year. We got pregnant and had a baby in November of 2006, and he deployed again in September of 2007. We had another baby in August of 2009, and he deployed again in April of 2010. Our love story is special because these deployments make us appreciate each other so very much. There is no guarantee that he will come home and that makes each conversation and web-cam session extremely special. I love him so much for being willing to do the hardest job imaginable, fighting for our freedom while missing out on seeing our babies grow and learn and change. He wasn’t here to see either child’s first birthday, or first steps, or first teeth poke through. He is so strong, I don’t know how he does it. I know that he admires me and loves me for raising our children alone, keeping them safe and loved and cared for, while trying not to let them know just how hard it is to be here without their father. My four year old son tells me everyday that he wants his daddy to come home, and I hug him and tell him that I do too. My daughter hears the ringing on the webcam, and runs to the computer yelling, Dada!!!! It is so incredibly difficult for our family to be separated, but it makes our love story so much stronger and amazing. We would both do anything for each other, and I can’t wait to see his handsome face again in April!
I fell in love for the first time when my daughter was born. I had never felt anything like that for another human being. It changed my relationship with my husband.
She is now a teen and our although our love has certainly changed the feelings run very deep and strong.
My husband and I met in the youth group at church when we were 16. We got married February 1, 1992. My mother passed away that June of Lou Gehrig’s disease. I was of course devestated to loose my mother (I have never know my father) but my husband was there for me and has been ever since. This year we celebrated 19 wonderful years together. God has blessed me with a wonderful mate!
I had been on many websites looking for the right guy. I kept getting parts of the right guy, funny, good looking, well mannered, fun, but just not in the right package. I had met tons of wonderful men and tons of weirdo’s, who told me they were one thing and were totally the opposite in person. The men that posted pictures, only to realize the pictures were over 10 years old. One guy even sprayed on hair color for our date to look younger. My friends also tried to fix me up. One day I was weeding through the emails that I got and this very cute, younger guy showed up in my inbox. I thought he was nice and stated that he was from about 1.5 hours away, not a bad drive if he was the right one. So we continued to correspond for days. I realized that after a long day of working (2 jobs) he was the only one I wanted to respond to. Morning and night I got a response. After a few weeks, I said lets meet up…well not so easy, he forgot to mention that he was currently in Kuwait. Long distance love affairs are not my thing, but I continued to correspond with me. We joked alot via the airways and at one point, not sure why (sick sense of humor). I told him that I had only 1 foot, and did not say anymore. I thought he knew I was joking. Well 6 weeks later he flew in to meet me. I picked him up and we went to a local restaurant. He kept trying to look down at my feet and I couldn’t tell why..and he said..wow for a second I thought you had such a realistic prosthetic and then realized you actually had 2 feet. I totally forgot about the joke. He wasn’t sure if i was joking. I knew that night I would marry him. Any man that did not care if I was limbless and still wanted to be with me, that would fly 8000 miles to meet me, was well worth the effort. We had 10 days of wineries, camping and bliss. 7 months later he flew in and we married in Vegas, 2 months after that I flew to Kuwait with my two kitties and lived with him for 2.5 years before we came back to the U.S. to settle. We have been married almost 4 years. Still going strong!
I went to a community theater production, a musical revue called Broadway’s Best. One of the cast members was a pretty redhead with a beautiful singing voice. During the show I developed a sort of fantasy crush on her, but since I was there with my girlfriend, I never expected to actually get to know her. A month later, there were tryouts for another musical production, Cole Porter’s Anything Goes. I went to the auditions, and there was my fantasy redhead, Carol. Not suprisingly, she got one of the leads (Hope Harcourt) and I got a glorified chorus role: The Purser. The plot of the musical involves a young con man, Billy, stowing away on an ocean liner to persue the girl of his dreams, who’s going to Europe to marry a titled Englishman. The irony was that while he was persuing her, my character, The Purser is basically a cop persuing him, to throw him in the brig for stowing away. Billy gets to kiss her and sing romantic duets with her, and I’m the clueless minion of the law standing in the way of true love. It was agony. Backstage, Carol proved to be every bit as nice as she was attractive and talented, but I was still in a serious (although somewhat rocky) relationship so I was no more than cordial with her. Flash forward a year. The theater group was holding a fundraising dance and there was Carol. I danced a couple of times with her, but nothing else happened. The next day I discovered that my girlfriend was in love with another guy, and I was torn between being devastated and overjoyed that I could persue Carol with a clear concience. I called her and we’ve been lovers and best friends ever since. We’ve been married for 20 years.
We met because I had a broken toe and needed to rest at a church function. We talked for hours, but that was all that happened for a few months. Later, as his work schedule changed and he was able to do more with our group, we started to really click. We dated three months before he asked me to marry him, but were engaged 6mo because we were both in college at the time. I made sure we talked about future children and how we would educate them, the whole 9 yards!
Later on, with a tiny son in the NICU, my husband would kiss me when we found ourselves alone in the elevator. It really lightened the uncertainty of the situation, I knew I could count on his love.
A year and a half ago, we moved to some property. We’d already discussed that if something ever happened, we wanted to be buried on our property if we could be, and then we got a fatal diagnosis for the daughter I had carried in my womb 8mo. Heartsick, I watched my husband dig her grave in the hot July sun through rock – sometimes only achieving an inch an hour. We buried her a about a week later in a tiny coffin he lovingly built; over 50 people showed up to support us.
I have depended on him, and he has been there. He doesn’t always have the right thing to say, and sometimes his silence feels lonely, but he says Job’s friends were the best support before they started talking. He has always been there for me, even when I haven’t been enjoyable to be around, which is a lot.
It seems like a lot of our marriage has been spent traveling through one valley or another. Sometimes, I really do forget to count the blessings I do have, when I focus on the daughter that I miss so much. Sometimes I get fearful, and I go to my husband with doubts and he simply says “It’s till ‘death do we part’ babe. We’re in this together.” He always tells me that our daughter dying isn’t my fault when I get to feeling like it was, and has never blamed me. I know sometimes I’m not very lovable, and he has to choose to love me, so I have learned to do the same thing for him. I’m so glad I’m living life from beside him!
Summer of 2006 I went to California on vacation with my friends. While there, I met a man named Steve. He was gorgeous! But not only was he gorgeous…he was smart…funny and everything I dreamed of. I introduced myself to him one day on the beach and asked him where some good places to eat were. He said “Well if you would like, I can show you around tonight and take you to one of them”. Of course I said yes. Lets just say my two week trip was the best and I fell in love so fast. I barely spent time with the girls i came with. I left back for Michigan…sadly…with my summer love left behind. We wrote…called…even video chatted online. We kept in touch for two years. One day I got out of one of my college classes and he was standing at my car with a bouquet of Lillie’s! He transferred to U of M University which was right by my college and now lived in Michigan. Two years later (2010) we were married. It may sound cliche but it was love at first sight and we are still in love to this very day!
I accepted a friend request from this cute guy on myyearbook.com a little over two years ago. At first it wasn’t much beyond the “thanks for the add” note. Then after a very stressful day, I posted my status as “very depressed”. The response of most of the males on my friends list went along the lines of, “come here baby, I’ve got something to make you feel better.” Danny was different, his message to me asked me what was wrong, and was there anything he could do to help.
Slowly we started chatting more and more often. He was always very sweet and never crude. I finally got brave enough to give him my phone number. We lived 500 miles apart at the time. The first time I heard his voice I knew, this one is mine. We spent a lot of time on the phone. One day I received a text message from him, he was holding a little gold band out to me. He told me it was his Grandmother’s and asked if I would do him the honor of wearing it. At this point we had not even met in person. I told him I would think about it.
On July 9th 2009, I headed south to meet this man whose voice made my heart jump. When I arrived at his Mother’s house, he hauled me out of my jeep, gave me the longest, deepest kiss I have ever had in my life, then dropped to his knee and slid that little gold band on my finger. Right in front of his Mother! I made my decision right there, I told him to pack his things and load what we could, he was coming with me.
Six days later on July 15th, we were married. We are still on our honeymoon and plan to be for a very long time.
My husband and I collided at home plate. He was the catcher and I slid in to home plate trying to score a run. What I scored was a torn ligament instead. He felt very badly about that and we fell in love during the healing process. Ten months later we were married and were married for 36 years, 4 months, and 10 days.
Bob was my soul mate and best friend. He was my picture of complete unconditional love. He went to heaven unexpectedly on November 10th, 2009 and I miss him with all of my heart. A love like ours is one of those rare and very special things that you never get over.
My husband licked my arm after our first meeting. Apparently, he had seen me several times before at various social outings with our friends, but had never had the courage to talk to me, and he couldn’t figure out who I was. I showed up to a St. Patrick’s Day party at a friend’s house, and we were formally introduced. Our friends had been making a concerted effort to get the poor guy drunk because they always had ridiculous stories from nights when he actually drank. He was well on his way, and offered me a drink. I didn’t care for what he offered, so we compromised and did different drinks. While he drank his, our friends were telling me how hilarious it is to get him drunk because they never know what he will do. Then he ripped my drink out of my hand, drank it himself, and then proceeded to lick off of my arm what had spilled in the drink stealing. Mid-lick he realized this was probably not a great idea, and ran away in utter embarrassment. He spent the rest of the night trying to sober up so that he could properly apologize. Since he tried so hard to redeem himself, I called him the next day to see if he wanted to meet for breakfast. We sat at the restaurant through the breakfast and lunch rush talking about everything under the sun. What really sealed the deal is when he took care of an elderly lady who was being ignored by the waitress. We spent the rest of the day together, and every day after. We were married 8 months later, and every day with this crazy man is an adventure I wouldn’t trade for the whole world.
When I was 16, I was at my best friend’s house when she showed me a picture of ‘Mike’, a guy that she was friends with online. They just IMed each other occasionally, and I thought he looked cute, but he was just a guy online and I would never meet him anyway. Three years later after I started my first year at Texas A&M, I discovered that Mike also went to A&M. My best friend told him he should IM me, because I didn’t know very many people yet. One night, he sent me a message, and we started talking. We decided to meet up the next day on campus and have lunch. I enjoyed talking with him, but I didn’t feel like there was much there besides friendship. A couple of weeks later, I started hanging out with another guy friend who was actually my ex. I had never completely gotten over this guy, so I was thrilled to see him again. However, I still didn’t trust him. One evening, I called him and told him that he had hurt me too many times and that I didn’t think things would work out for us. It was really difficult for me to tell him that, and I was very upset. Later that night I went to the library to study, and out of nowhere, Mike showed up with a box of my favorite cookies and a Sprite. I was completely amazed at his timing, because he had no idea that I was having a bad night. He constantly did sweet things for me, and I finally realized that Mike had become more than a friend to me. The Lord brought us together. We started dating, and now, seven years later, we’re married and have a sweet baby girl.
I met my love online, I wasn’t looking for a man, I was buying rubber stamps. I needed some custom designs for an art project. The design process involved a lot of chit chat with the vendor and Scott kept up a steady stream of puns and word play, alternating between making me groan and laugh out loud. He subsequently asked me to do some design work for his small rubber stamp company, and we chatted online almost daily, working together or just enjoying each others’ company.
An online relationship, if both people are honest, provides a deep intimacy, a knowing of the real person, without the clutter of a face to face relationship. I developed a very strong affection for Scott before we met, he is a beautiful person and this shined through our conversations in his warmth and sense of humor.
It was several months before we met in person, I was living 500 miles away. He invited me as a visiting artist to the spring ”Sock Monkey Madness” festival in Rockford Illinois. I was only with him for a few days but it was so hard to leave! Over the next few months I visited a few more times, and by late summer I had decided to move here to be with him. A beautiful friendship has blossomed into a wonderful love story. I tell people I found a man on Ebay, but I had to come and get him because the shipping was a nightmare!
That was in 2005-06. This year, 2011, we are getting married at the annual Sock Monkey Madness festival. We are having a very small but very silly wedding ceremony while we also vend at the event. Imagine a wedding dress covered in sock monkeys. Humor + Love = Happiness
Growing up on a farm in New Brunswick, Canada, I never travelled very far. A lady at my church bet or dared me to take a trip to the Holy Land. I decided to take her up on the bet and went on the trip with a group of tourists from Maine. . I had a strange feeling about the trip but chalked it up to nervousness about traveling so far from home and flying on an airplane. Our group met with a group of tourists from Oklahoma and Michigan. Upon our arrival at the Holy Land Hotel, in Jerusalem , Israel, I was assigned a seat in the dining room across from a young man from Oklahoma. He had the southern accent and knew absolutely nothing about Canada . He later asked me to sit with him on the bus on our excursions to the different cities. At the time, I thought I would probaly never see him again but after I flew home to Canada, he called me . After numerous telephone calls and letters, we were married 6 moths later and have been married for 35 years and live in Oklahoma.
I met the love of my life when I was six. I remember it clearly – I was sitting on the living room floor, playing with my Beanie Babies, when my mum walked through the door and handed me a book. I was hesitant, but I gave it a chance. I opened the cover …
… And read the entire thing through, right then and there.
Harry followed me through the years. He was a steady spot in the confusion that occurred when I moved across the state at age eight. He helped me through the angst and turmoil that accompanies middle school; he was there for me through my mum’s depression.
I’ll always love Harry. But the truth is, he may be more real than reality inside the confines of my own mind, but his veins are filled with ink and his adorable, messy black hair exists only in the imagination of one J.K. Rowling and all the adoring fans.
Books are wonderful. But there comes a point at which one needs to set them down and begin living life for real. I haven’t met anyone yet, and I don’t really want to. I’m too young to love someone forever. But sometime in the future, a point will come when I’ll walk out into the world, ready to find my other half, head held high … and Harry in my purse. Just in case.
It was March of 1962 and I was a WAC stationed in the Pentagon. I was working the night shift and one night I was standing in line to get my dinner and my roommate and I started talking to two young men standing in line with us. A month or so later she and I were in the soldier’s lounge and noticed a man sitting at a table. He looked familiar, but I couldn’t place him. He saw me staring at him and spoke to me. I was embarrased and told him he looked familiar, but I couldn’t remember where I had met him. He said yes, we had met in the Pentagon cafeteria. We sat and talked a while, then he walked me back to the barracks.
We were talking a mile-a-minute, so we walked around the block, and around the block, and around the block… About midnight I got cold and went into the barracks to get a sweater. I told my roommate “That is the man I am going to marry!” We walked around that same block until 3 am.
We were married three months later in the Arlington National Cemetary Chapel. (It was the only church for our post.) That was almost 49 years ago and we are still very much in love. But to this day, when someone asks how we met he says “Yeah, she picked me up in a bar with that old line ‘Haven’t I met you somewhere before, soldier?’ “
Michael and I almost didn’t meat. We both came very close to not doing the activity that brought us both together. Sure we had seen each other at the Murder Mystery Dinners that we both enjoyed doing. But even in those our characters never interacted. I had no idea that the love of my life was so close to me.
The invitation to try out for the play was interesting to me. I love to act but during college was never really involved in drama as I figured I was too busy with school stuff to commit to something like that. A friend of mine was doing a play though and he wanted to include people who didn’t normally act at the school. I thought about it for awhile but had decided not to do it…that is until Heidi and Amy found out. They told me I had to audition so I did. Meanwhile Michael had decided that he was no longer interested on the track team. This decision came just in time for him to audition for the play as well. We both got in and a friendship started to blossom. We were/are both big geeks and just had a lot of fun together. I started to get the feeling that he liked me but I still wasn’t sure how I felt about him. That is until one night before our last performance of the play. We started singing “Moses Supposes” from “Singing in the Rain” together. The boy won my heart right then and there.
The rest of our story is filled with fun, laughter and other magical experiences (as well as a fair share of sad times or things we had to help each other deal with) including a magical proposal complete with a pink elephant and a rainbow. The next chapter in our wonderful adventure is our wedding coming up in June. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with my wonderful Michael who I almost missed the chance of knowing.
I was 14 when I first met my husband. We grew up just blocks from each other, but travelled in different circles as we went to different schools growing up. My girlfriend starting dating my husband’s brother and thought that the two of us should meet so we could all hang out together. To make a long story short, we did meet and immediately became great friends. I wasn’t allowed to date yet so he would visit me at my house (under supervision, of course, as I come from a strict Italian/Catholic family) and we would spend hours on the phone just talking about everything and anything. Our friendship continued and we eventually started dating. One of the things that made him so amazing to me? Not many guys would have stuck around for so long putting up with my family and the strict rules! I was only 20 and he 22 when we married – many people had their doubts as we were so young, but we both knew how we felt and followed our hearts. We will have been married for 28 years this April and have three amazing children. He was my first love and continues to this day to be my best friend and the love of my life.
Donald and I started dating right after high school graduation in Norfolk, Virginia. We were crazy about each other and had even talked about getting married someday. After just 10 months, circumstances forced me to move back to my native Texas, but Donald and I continued our relationship long distance for another year. But youth and immaturity led me to break up with him so I could explore “greener”–and closer–pastures in Texas. The break-up was abrupt and unpleasant because I had told Donald many times–and sincerely when I said it–that I would move back to Virginia to be with him. As the years passed, I married, had children, divorced, married again, divorced, etc. When the internet came to my house in 1995, one of the first things I did was search for Donald; I felt a strong need to apologize for my selfish and callous behavior. However, I was never able to find an email address for him, though I did discover that he was now living in Macon, Georgia. I was tempted to write or call, but didn’t want to disrupt his marriage if he was married. So, every so often I would search again for an email address so I could casually drop him a line, but I was always disappointed. In April 2009, I created a Facebook account and immediately looked for Donald there, to no avail. Six weeks later, I checked again, and Donald’s face popped up–I’d know it anywhere! I nearly fainted! With trembling fingers, I typed out a message of greeting and posted it to his FB. I got a response the next day, and we began writing to each other almost daily. He had never married and was a confirmed bachelor. We spoke on the phone every night for hours at a time and eventually I visited him in Georgia. In November 2009, he sold his house, quit his job, and moved to Texas to be with me. And last night–he proposed! I will finally marry the love of my life!
We met at a playground in Brooklyn, NY, in the summer of 1956. There was a four year old girl hanging from the monkey bars. “Come up here,” she said. “No,” I replied. I was headed towards the sandbox by way of my mother holding my pail and shovel. Sitting next to her was a woman who was feeding her seven month old son a banana in his stroller. My ten month old brother was in a stroller next to the ladies baby and my two year old brother was asleep in my mothers lap. As I grabbed the shovel and pail my mother said, “Look at the cute baby.” I looked at that baby and said, “So what…I already have two brothers.”
I met that ladies baby boy, twenty two years later…in an elevator at my new apartment building! He was the most handsome man that I ever met. Mussels like Popeye, beautiful deep dimples, black hair and not an ounce of fat on him!
That four year old girl from the monkey bars lived on my floor, two doors down. One day she invited me in for coffee and told me that her brother has seen me in the elevator and said that I had the most beautiful face that he ever saw…a year later, we were engaged.
At the wedding rehearsal my mother asked his mother, “Did you go to a park in Brooklyn and feed your son bananas?” His mother replied, “Yes, I did, the doctor recommended that I feed him bananas.”
We have been happily married for over 28 years. He still has mussels and those beautiful dimples, however, he’s lost some of that black hair. And me, well I have a few dimples of my own now.