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
My roomate from College worked at a local pub. She invited me down when it was her shift. I met a very nice man there. He was worldly, attractive, sexy and listened to me !
The next day, he came down to my Organic garden at the park and gave me a Praying Mantis egg.
We dated and mated. Our’s was a whirlwind romance.
We recently celebrated our 30th Wedding Anniversary. Which proves, that Love At First Sight really does exist !
I had been in another relationship at the time. It was one of those horrible abusive relationships that everyone could see you and instead of saying anything they just pitied you. And when I was in that situation I could pretty much agree with them that I was just going to be another statistic. Until I met Manuel. We had gone to high school together so it wasn’t like he was a complete stranger. But we only knew of each other rather than knew each other.
It started out a gloomy day and my best friend told me that my fiance at the time was going to be gone the whole day so we should go hang out at the parade in town. Well I lived in walking distance of the parade so I didn’t really see any harm in hanging out for a few hours. But we had to keep it secret because my fiance would have been FURIOUS with me. We snuck out and headed down to main street for the parade with her boyfriend and stood on the side of the road waiting for the parade to begin. I noticed a few people passing by but mainly kept a look out for my fiance from behind my best friends boyfriend. I was so afraid to be seen by him or one of his friends that I was hiding behind someone. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw Manuel. He was walking casually by and my vision focused in solely on him. I walked out from behind my friends boyfriend and without really knowing what I was doing I called out to him. I thought he didn’t hear me so I screamed louder. He kept on ignoring me so I grabbed some candy from a nearby eight year old boy and chucked it at Manuel’s head. The candy whizzed by his head as he turned to face me and it felt like the world stopped around us. Everything moved so lucid around us that it was as if the world was slowing down and the only thing moving at normal speed was him towards me. That first encounter was short but sweet. I was soon sneaking out again to come see him. The second time we hung out for hours. We talked about books, movies, and our dreams. Being around him just made me want to do more with my life and he helped me to believe that I could do those things. He didn’t just give me the attention that most men gave women. He treated me like a woman that could do anything and go anywhere with her life. It felt like he was empowering me to be a better person. We sat in a restaurant and he begged me to eat more and I broke down and confessed my eating disorder and I didn’t stop until I revealed the abuse and how I felt like a prisoner in my own home. I saw that it was after dark and knew I was in trouble when I got back to the apartment. He couldn’t do anything to save me and he left me at home for the fate that awaited me.
After that my fiance found out about the whole thing and I cannot reveal the evil things that happened that night. But I lay there awake for some time and realized I had to get out. I wanted a better life and my life veered off from where I wanted it to be. The next week my fiance told me he was to leave for two weeks due to military orders since he was in the National Guard. My self esteem was frayed and my inner power was all butt demolished but I found some form of hope to help me through it. During the two weeks I devised a plan to leave. I had to have my wisdom’s taken out and my mother determined I HAD to stay with her after the surgery. She knew if I stayed home that I wouldn’t be taken care of. So the two weeks he was gone I started to move my stuff back to my mom’s. I left almost everything we bought together and took what I came in with. I didn’t have enough time to take all my stuff from lack of help but I but by the time I went in for my surgery I was ready to leave. During my time with my mom I woke to find the rest of my stuff was there. Instead of me leaving him he had left me and took all my belongings there. He found a new girl and couldn’t wait to get rid of me. I found that ironic.
During that time I realized I didn’t have a high school diploma and I was almost 20 years old. I didn’t have any job options beyond working at a fast food joint and my social skills were shot. I stayed with my mom until almost October until she finally told me she was kicking me out and I was going to live at a place called Job Corps. I enrolled and moved on campus and it was the best thing that could have happened to me. During that time I had a steady boyfriend, I GED, was working towards a High School diploma, and a certification in Business and Clerical. I had counseling on site and health care. They nursed me back to the old me but maybe a bit better. I also learned I was an alcoholic and they helped me to kick the habit because I couldn’t leave to find someone to get alcohol. That and if I was caught drinking underage I would have been kicked out. I wasn’t as ignorant as I was before the incident but thankfully a little wiser. A month before my birthday I was dumped by my boyfriend. He just grew tired of me and ended it before he grew even more bored. Which sucked because my birthday is Feb. 8th and that was right before Valentines day. I was devastated but I got over it. A few weeks later I get a random call from Manuel which I hadn’t spoken too since before I left my ex. It was as if we never stopped speaking. We called each other almost every night and spoke for hours. He was respected at my government school and they let us break some of their rules… like how long we could talk on the phone.
When my birthday came up I had gotten sick and I couldn’t properly celebrate my birthday. So I had my best friend take care of me and my mother suggested I should call him up. I called him up sounding horrible and having the worst birthday ever. He was on his way to have dinner with one of his female friends. I told him it was alright since I should have been in bed. But apparently he felt so bad that he came to see me for Valentines day and tried to make up for my horrible birthday experience. He helped me learn how to drive (since I had just learn how to drive at 20) and at 21 I wasn’t any better. After a while he started showering me with presents, shopping trips, and dinners that I slowly learned his affections for me. But all of my relationships had ended sour and I didn’t want to lose him. So one day I told him no when he asked if there was a possibility. A friend of mine was listening and she told me to get my butt back on that phone and tell him yes. She told me if I didn’t do it that she was going to beat me over the head until I had some sense knocked into me. After that I called him the next day thankful that he even answered and told him “YES! I will date you. Please forgive me for being so silly yesterday.” We started dating and everything felt so right just being with him. He has helped me to become the woman I want to be and has supported me in every way that he possibly can. He has helped me to go from another statistic to happily ever after. He is my best friend, my rock, and my soul mate.
I met my husband Jack in high school when we were just 16 years old. The first prom we went to we designated the song “I Love How You Love Me” as OUR song. A month after we graduated we got married. We had two daughters within the next 4 years. We didn’t want to raise our girls in a city atmosphere so we moved to a farm in Missouri. Jack got a job at a motor company as an electrical engineer and loved his job. Soon they had him traveling. His first trip was to England. I dreaded him leaving the girls & I for so long. We had never been apart before, but the week went by quickly. So when he said that he had to go to Saudi Arabia, I wasnt too worried. I figured that the first trip went ok that this one would too. WRONG. He had a layover for 1 night in Kuwait. The next morning he woke up to gunfire & tanks. Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait and he was now a prisoner. He eventually made it to the American Embassy where he became a hostage. During his confinement we were allowed an occasional message to each other via the State Department. He had to have a nickname for this communication & he became “the big handsome devil”. After 4 1/2 months Saddam declared that all hostages could go home. What a relief!! They flew to Germany and that is when I got my first phone call in months. I answered the phone (not knowing it was him) and OUR song, “I love how you love me” was playing from a cassette Jack found in the US Embassy! That definitely was the best romantic moment of my life!
Here is a story of a first date disaster that turned into a dream come true and I promise it will make you laugh so hard, you will cry. Many years ago, I met this guy at a bar and barely remembered his face. Two nights later, we met for a first date at a park and I was so taken back by how good looking he was, I turned into a nervous wreck! We sat on a park bench and I was talking rapidly and suddenly, a bug flew into my mouth. I started coughing and then choking and doing everything I could to get the bug up. Finally, I took a deep breath and just swallowed hard. The guy asked me if I wanted to go get some water or something to drink and I just nervously went on talking and laughing about what had happened. I began laughing so hard that I threw my head back and conked it on the stone park bench. When I reached up to touch where I had just hit my head, there was a smattering of blood on my fingers. I wanted to die! The guy felt really bad and asked if I wanted to go to the hospital or get a band aid and I just blew it off and said no, let’s just get to dinner. Since we drove separate cars, we decided to follow each other to the restaurant. The guy followed me out of the parking lot and when I went to take a left, I never looked right and sure enough a car was coming. The car that was coming veered right and up onto a lawn and laid on the horn in anger. I just looked back at my date in his car and waived in sheer embarrassment. We are finally at the restaurant and everything is going wonderfully! Well, almost everything. A half an hour into dinner, we were both totally enjoying one another when suddenly I started laughing and blew a nose bubble. A NOSE BUBBLE!! I quickly covered my nose with my napkin and ignored it, but silently I was crumbling inside. Ten minutes later, it happened again, but this time, I kept the napkin to my nose and marched to the bathroom for a hearty nose blowing session!! Now I know the evening was a disaster and don’t expect the ever hear from this guy again. But sure enough, he kisses me goodnight and then calls 3 days later for another date J Is this guy a trooper or what? Anyway, we soon fell in love despite the odds and a year later we were engaged. We were married on August 9th, 2003 and now have 3 beautiful daughters!
I was the emergency room nurse when he was brought in septic with pneumonia, unable to breathe, feeling as if he were suffocating and burning up with fever. We did the usual emergency care and packed him off to a private room with a private duty nurse (no intensive care units in those days), and I offered up a quick prayer for his recovery and promptly forgot about him. The only thing I remember saying to him was reassurance that he was safe now and we would take care of him.
A month or two passed and he approached me one day and introduced himself, told me a little bit about himself, and asked me out. I said no. He was 20 years older than I, divorced with children, and I was newly graduated from college, not yet 21, not certain if I wanted to continue living in Iowa, and having just come out of a bruising long-term relationship, not ready to be involved.
He persisted. Finally, to get rid of him, I agreed to meet him for coffee. I thought I could make it clear to him that we would never suit one another, the age difference alone being a huge stumbling block. But we had a wonderful afternoon. He turned out to be a gentle person, funny, kind, well-read, and with a lot of life experience. He loved his children with a type of adoration that is rare, but it was clear that he also expected good behavior from them. I agreed to go out with him again and he took me to dinner and then I met his children — all eight of them, some of them not very much younger than I.
Over time it became harder and harder to resist this funny, kind, dear man, who could talk for hours on any given subject without ever being boring, and who treated me as if I were precious.
One winter day we were sitting in front of the fireplace, reading to one another, and he broke off in the middle of a paragraph and said, “Will you be with me forever? I love you with all my heart and will cherish you to the end of my days.” The simple sincerity of it took my breath away. I thought of all the things that would make our marriage a challenge, but I found myself saying, “Yes.” He picked me up and whirled me around and around until we were both dizzy and laughing. We were married three weeks later, with all of his children giving him away.
We had almost 47 years together. He was friend, lover, counselor, teacher, comforter, challenger, dance partner, and destroyer of all things 8-legged on my behalf. I hardly know how to go on without him, but his love sustains me still. Love does not die.
So what is love? It might be a Koan..what is more like self than other. One’s aim may be to the West, but the arrow can easily fly East.
I started working with my (now) wife 30 years ago at one of those darlings of Wall Street, XEROX. In most of the ‘70s it was the company to work for…especially sales.
M’ was my support person at HQ. Bright and funny, we had a good pull-and-push relationship; I was the salesman (never to be trusted) and she approved contracts (dang administrator).
Things started to heat up at my birthday party. I invited her on a whim, and was surprised she accepted.. .we connected so much while I was cooking and bartending that we finally sat down on the floor of the kitchen while the Nachos and piña coladas brewed and began a marathon conversation; unfortunately we excluded all the other guests but they helped themselves and let us schmooze in peace.
We dated, lived together and then came the ultimate sacrifice…her car gave up the ghost one Monday am and she now had a commute problem to get to work from Marin. I had a 911 Porsche Targa and a VW Camper. She called me from the Bay Bridge one day saying, the wind is so bad I can’t drive the camper!!!
So, she started to drive my 911 to work while I worked in Marin with the camper.
I thought: I have just given my 911 Porsche to a girl friend. Would I do this for any woman in the world? Probably not. I must be in love. So I asked and she said yes. Sometimes the message comes when you are willing to give up that which, ya think at the time, is most precious to you only to discover that the recipient is more precious. Yeah, that’s love.
Our story played out over about 7 years. I met my husband while he was dating someone else, and under implied orders from her not to befriend me. His girlfriend at the time was the girl who, two or three years earlier, had stolen (stolen!) MY first boyfriend, and there was some residual animosity there. Turns out he were at the same college, and his roommate was one of my buddies. We eventually became friends. A few years later, we reconnected when I was planning to move to the city where he was in graduate school, and we became more-than-friends. It didn’t take long for us to figure out what our two exes had gotten wrong – by the time we celebrated our first date’s anniversary, we’d been married for a couple of months!
Our love story is a whirlwind, and an internet success! I had just gotten home from veterinary school and was ready for a relationship. I decided to place a personal ad online.
The next day, I had about fifteen responses. Some were interesting and some weren’t, but there was one that caught my eye, mostly because it was only one line.
Okay, it wasn’t REALLY only one line but the computer didn’t make any page breaks so it was a few sentences that went all along the top of the email. I had to page over to see the whole thing. It was from a man who lived nearby, but didn’t really say too much. It was fate, I guess, that I wrote back and asked him a few questions like what he would do if he had tomorrow off from work unexpectedly.
He said he’d go to the bookstore and get a good book and then go to the park and sit under a tree to read. That is EXACTLY what I would do, so I was intrigued. Within a week, we set up our first date at Barnes and Noble.
When I walked in and saw him, I thought, “CUTE!” and we really hit it off. We talked until the store closed and for another two hours outside by my car.
Fast forward eight weeks, on Thanksgiving, he asked me to be his wife. We were married on 7/24/98, ten months to the day of our first date. That was 12 1/2 years ago, and he is still my soulmate, best friend and confidant. I couldn’t imagine my life without him and our two sons, and I am thankful every day that I didn’t just hit DELETE on that “one line” email.
Bridget’s Version: We met in high school during our marching band days. Kyle played the bass drum and I carried around the clarinet. We were friends and I actually asked Kyle to the Sadie Hawkin’s dance my senior year and he said no. Of course I was devastated and we stopped talking to each other. So from there we both went off to college and continued on our own lives. I went to Western Kentucky University and got my bachelors in social work. After college I moved back to Nashville. I started working at the YWCA Domestic Violence Shelter. I was also going to University of Tennessee program for my Master in Social Work part time. Then in January of 2007 we reconnected on Facebook (you have to love facebook). We started hanging out as friends but I knew that I was swooning for him. So, eventually I asked Kyle to go with me to a Predator’s Game on St. Patrick’s Day. I got the tickets from my sister as a birthday gift and thought it would be a great way to make my move. So, Kyle and I go to the arena give them the tickets and to my horror they are for the wrong day! The tickets were for the March 31game instead. I was mortified. We both laughed about it but I just wanted to crawl into a hole. However, we decided to stay downtown and meet some of my friends. We ate at Bailey’s Irish Pub, drank green beer, and went dancing. That night when we got home we kissed and have been dating since then. The scariest part of our relationship was shortly after that when Kyle told me about the interview in Huntsville. I was so worried about being long distance. But we did it. A lot of driving those 112 miles from my house in Nashville down to Huntsville. Then May 17th of this year we went on a cruise to Bermuda with my family. On Tuesday night we were at 50’s dance night. Kyle kept saying “Let’s take a walk.” I just wanted to twist. Finally Kyle got me to walk to the back of the ship. When we got back there he told me all of the things he loved about me (I wish I could remember them now) and proposed. So, I got proposed to in St. George’s, Bermuda.
Kyle’s Version: Bridget and I first met in high school. We hung out a little, but I wasn’t interested in a relationship with anyone at the time. She asked me out to the Sadie Hawkins dance my junior year, and I’m sure she’ll tell you that I said no. While I did turn her down, I’m just not the kind of person who goes to dances and, as such, had already made plans for the weekend. Anyway, after I “rejected” her, she didn’t come around much anymore. She graduated that same year and we lost touch.
I spent a year or six at Auburn, getting my bachelor’s in Electrical Computer Engineering with a minor in math (shameless plug) and then moved back to Nashville to search for a job. I was browsing around facebook one night and decided to try and reconnect with some high school friends. Bridget and I started talking, and she invited me to hang out with her and her roommates. They left to go to a bar, so Bridget and I went to Blockbuster to rent a movie.
Later that month she invited me to a Predators game that her sister had gotten her tickets to for her birthday. When we got to the ticket scanner, the woman told us that our tickets were for the wrong game. I could tell Bridget was embarrassed, but she laughed it off and was able to make a joke of it. I knew from that point that she had a lot of qualities I admire, and we kissed later that night. When we made it to the correct Predators game, I told her that I had an interview with a networking firm in Huntsville and could be moving away. She didn’t say a word to me the rest of the night. Later I found out how much the possibility of me moving away hurt her, and I promised her that no matter how hard it was, it would not hinder the development of our relationship. It took a lot of effort, and even some tears, but we made it work.
The engagement:
Earlier in 2008 I told my parents when they came down to help on my house that I wanted to ask Bridget to marry me. They asked if I had a certain type of ring in mind, so I told them that Bridget’s big criteria was to not have a blood diamond. My mother explained to me that they had purchased some diamonds when I was young as an investment and when they sold them, kept the biggest for me in a lock box for me to give as an engagement present one day. This was perfect because it was an inherited diamond. Later that same month we planned a cruise to Bermuda, and while at Bridget’s parents’ house, I asked them if they would allow me to marry Bridget. They were very surprised, but also very pleased. I went and bought the ring that same day.
The day before the cruise while packing, I stuck the ring in with my laptop stuff because I thought of all the places Bridget might rummage around in my bags, my “work stuff” was probably the safest place. While on the cruise I looked at our schedule every day to try and find the perfect time. I considered a carriage ride around the island, the fancy Italian restaurant, the beach with the pink sand, etc. Finally I decided that I didn’t want to wait until the last day on the island and not be able to enjoy being engaged while in Bermuda, so I decided to take her above deck one night under the guise of “walking off dessert”. (note: I had tried this the previous night, but she had fallen asleep between dinner and changing into casual clothes…the timing just wasn’t right) I put the ring in my pocket as inconspicuously as possible, and we headed out.
On the way above deck, we heard a lot of laughter and decided to check it out. It was a magician comedy act in one of the lounges, so we decided to stay and watch. Right as we walked in, he started asking about newly engaged couples in the audience. I wanted to say something right then and there, but restrained myself. We walked down front to get a seat in one of the only empty sections. Since we were right down front, the magician decided to single us out as not bothering to show up on time. Keep in mind, at this point I have a ring, inside a massive box, in my pocket…something that, to my mind, was not easily overlooked by anyone in the audience. Bridget tried to sit on my left side (where the ring was) and I quickly guided her to my right side. We enjoyed the magician for about fifteen minutes, and then he started calling volunteers from the audience. I swear God wanted me to sweat that night. The magician requested all “able-bodied men” to stand and take part in the trick.
I didn’t move.
Bridget wanted me to have a good time, so she coerced me to stand. The magician continued the bit, asking questions and having men sit as they no longer met the criteria. He asked five questions each of which, to me, seemed like an eternity. After five questions there were three men standing…I was one of them. The magician then asked his sixth question.
“Men, if you are going bald, please sit down.”
It was at this point in my life that I decided I was going bald. Bridget, surprisingly, didn’t object.
After the magic show, the audience started to leave. Bridget’s sister and her boyfriend had seen us get singled out, so they headed over to chat. I had made it out of the show by the skin of my teeth and my pocket was starting to get very hot. I covered my pocket with my left arm as casually as possible while we talked, and found out that there was a sock hop happening somewhere on the ship. I told them that we might check it out after we had taken a walk above deck.
We headed out again and finally made it to the top deck for our walk. I opened the door to go outside and heard something I hadn’t expected…the twist.
As my luck would have it, the sock hop was taking place the exact same place, the exact same time that I had planned to make my move. The night so far was a huge success. Bridget, being the dance lover that she is, immediately started trying to dance with me, brushing her arm up against my left pocket.
I attempted to take her upstairs to the upper deck where it was less crowded. Once there, I finished the song with her, and made her promise that we would walk to the other end of the ship when we were done. She kept trying to dance with me, and I kept trying to pull her away. I finally got her where I wanted her, and we hugged and looked at the island view. I looked into her eyes, and said:
“Bridget, I love you. I love your smile and I love your innocent nature. Your soul is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, and I would be honored to grow old with you. Bridget Ann Bailey, will you marry me?”
At this point I was of course down on one knee. I had initially gotten down on the wrong knee, (my right knee, since in order to reach into my left pocket I needed to be on my left knee) but Bridget was so shocked that she never noticed. She asked me if I was serious, a response I hadn’t prepared for, but I said yes and so did she. Best. Vacation. Ever.
I met Justin when I moved into his neighborhood at fourteen years old. We became friends who partied together often and even shared a couple of teenage kisses. We eventually lost touch even though we had many common friends, and in fact, he stayed good friends with my brother.
One year my brother rented a cabin in the mountains and invited me. He also asked me to give Justin a ride up there. It had been about eight years since I hung out with him, but ended up spending that entire night enthralled with talking to Justin. I couldn’t believe how much we had in common and how much his outlook on life mirrored my own, and it was this night we shared our first kiss since teenagers.
We saw each other four times in the following week before he left with his band on a six-week tour. While he was gone we talked solely through instant messages. I never even heard his voice, only written words. I was amazed I could feel so strongly about someone that I had so little contact with. I counted down the days until he came back, and when he did we spent the next two weeks together as much as possible until he had to go away again to a recording studio on the other side of the country.
I already knew that I was in love, and it turns out he felt the same, because when he returned he asked me to elope. I absolutely would have except I didn’t want to give my parents a heart attack! Instead, we moved in together and got engaged a year later. We’ve now been married for a year and half, and it’s been four years since he was away on that six-week tour. So many times I’ve thought about how I can’t believe I fell in love with “the boy next door” or that it took knowing him for ten years to discover it, but eventually I realize, this is what they call fate.
My husband and I were matched via eHarmony on February 21, 2004, after spending *another* lonely Valentine’s. I was 35, he, 40. When I saw his picture, I thought, “Wow, what a smile.” We had each seen a few other people through college and beyond but had never felt connected. We are both bookworms. We later discovered that we both used what our online matches had been reading as a gauge of whether to communicate further or not. I remember thinking when I was answering the profile question “What is the latest book you read?” that no one would have ever heard of Iain Murray’s biography of David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, so I’ll just put _Lord of the Rings_. That was pretty much verbatim what I typed, tongue-in-cheek. When Ken read my answer, he thought, “Well, I’ve got books by both those guys!” (Lloyd-Jones, by the way, was a Welch physician-turned-preacher around the WWII era.) Now as parents of a preschooler and a one-year-old, the latest books we’ve read tend to include such titles as _Mr. Brown Can Moo_ and _Go, Dog, Go_. But we love books as much as ever. And we love each other more than ever.
The Natural Love Seat
Thirty-five years ago my boss at the time suggested that we go out for a drink and we each bring a date. As it turned out I hit it off with the girl he brought, a girl named Linda. Call me cheesy, but it was love at first sight. As if a chemist whipped up some sort of love potion and put it in each of our drinks, we connected like a string of DNA. After about thirty minutes into the double date, we realized our dates were suspicious of our zealous conversation. Eventually, he interrupted us with a throat clear and asks me, “So, how long have you and [name] known each other (referring to my date)?” Linda and I, mutually nodded at each other, we knew something else was going on.
Linda was the girl I wanted, never have been so sure of anything in my life. But, get this, later found out that Linda not only felt the same way but told her best friend the same thing! I was hesitant of contacting Linda because my mother said I should not betray my boss. She said if it’s meant to be, it would happen—we would meet again.
Mom was right. One afternoon two years later, I was selling some of my furniture so I could afford a road trip. I put an ad in the paper for a love seat. Linda knocked on my door looking for a loveseat she had seen in a newspaper ad. That was the first day of the beginning of the rest of our lives together, it was an unspoken feeling. We got married six months later (I was fired)–that was thirty-two years ago.
When I was 17, I was the Editor-in-Chief of my high school newspaper and began going out with the Feature Editor. Believing first love should last, though things weren’t perfect, we were a couple through our senior year and our first year in college. He worked as a drummer in a hotel in the mountains for the summer and wanted me to be near him so he responded to ads for a camp counselor and took me to the interviews. When the summer I was 18 came, he drove me up to camp and left me there happily saying he’d see me on Thursday, his day off.
The counselors gathered to plan for the summer. We wrote our schedules and the first thing I noticed was the beautiful small writing of a counselor named Paul. We liked each other right away but his father, who Paul had taken care of each day after school when he had had a stroke, died suddenly after 3 days. Paul had to return home and only came back to camp leaving his mother with his brother’s company because he needed to see me again. When Thursday came, I met my drummer boyfriend and told him it was over. I was that sure of Paul. Now we’ve been married for 41 years and are proud parents of two and grandparents of one precious 8 month old daughter. Although Paul has a dreadful rare disease to deal with (Pemphigus Vulgaris), he never complains and we enjoy every day together appreciating my first boyfriend who made sure I got to camp in 1967 and met Paul so we could have these wonderful years sharing our love.
My love, Jim, and I were best friends in high school. He was the bestman at my wedding and my son’s godfather. My marriage turned abusive and ended with me working at Wal*Mart and raising 3 children without child support. I had always wanted to be a teacher, but after years of being told I was too stupid never thought it would happen. For Christmas Jim registered me for a class, bought my book and supplies. The confirmed bachelor babysat every week while I attended classes. After 5 years I became a teacher and a few years later we began a new step in our relationship. Today we have added a daugher and together are the proud and loving parents of the four children. He changed all our lives.
I met my husband on blind date when I was 16 years old. We got married right after graduation but 2 kids and 4 years later we were divorced. After 10 years of being apart, we were brought back together amid a bad circumstance. After about a month, his proposal to me was, “Do you want to grow old with me?” I said yes, and we were married on Valentine’s Day, 1980. We are still growing old together.
I was still new in town that summer before my fifth grade year but I already had found a new best friend. Her
name was Mattie Jo. There was this boy who was one year older than us and Mattie Jo and I and all the girls my age had a crush on him. He was so good-looking, very tall and slender, dark brown eyes and crew cut brown hair. He was so cute in his white tee shirt. Well, this boy’s Dad owned the local Texaco service station so he had to help out at the stationh after school and in the suimmer time.
Mattie Jo and I would put on our skates, the kind you had to lock onto your shoes with a skate key. Then, with keys swinging from a string around our necks, we would skate up the sidewalk on the opposite side of the service station hoping to get a glimpse of our dream boy. Then we would skate back on the station side of the street. There was no way he could not notice us. Then we would dissolve into fits of laughter as soon as we were out of sight.
Later on in the summer I got even braver. I had a classy, new, Schwinn bicycle. I thought I was pretty sharp tooling around town on it. When the tires on my bicycle were low, I would push my bike the few blocks to the Texaco and if I were lucky, “He” would be there and air up the tires for me. There must have been something
wrong with those new tires because they seemed to need lots of airing up.
Today, fifty three years later, that cute guy is still airing up my tires but today it is not a Schwinn but rather a bright red Harley Motorcycle.
I met my husband when I was 14 and visiting New Orleans for the summer. He worked at the beach and it was a natural; we fell in love that summer. Tthen I had to go back home to Atlanta where I lived. For Thanksgiving Jack drove up to visit and my father (who was unhappy with my being in love) took us over to my aunt’s so no one was home when he arrived. However, a man who was working for us told Jack where my aunt lived and he went there. My Uncle had tickets to the GA/GA Tech game, and off we went!
During the summer we wanted to get married, which, of course, wasn’t allowed until I at least finished high school. So, I worked out a schedule that would have me graduating at the end of the summer, my Junior year. I’d miss an entire year of school. Well, the year began, but I had to take Physics instead of Chemistry, my love, and I couldn’t understand it at all. So, when Jack said to me one Oct. day to “come and go with him” – I did! We headed for Florida, since we thought no one would be looking for us in that direction.
We tried to get jobs, but with no luck. So, I called home to talk to my Mom and got my Dad instead. He told me my Mom had been ill since I ran away. So, we went back to GA. All the family tried to talk me out of staying and finishing school, but I was convinced I couldn’t pass, so we went on to New Orleans to live in a small cabin my father owned. Little did we know my father had the police chasing us from the time that we first left.
We stopped in Slidell, LA to visit Jack’s Mom before we went on across the lake to our new home and that’s where the police caught us! After all, my new husband had transported a minor across state lines! They took my new hubby off to jail and I immediately called my father who said my Uncle Paul might be able to get the warrant removed. He did manage to, but not until the next day. Once he was let out we continued on to our new home and the beginning of our 50 years (this year) marriage!
What a story to tell our grandkids, of which we have 11 and 4 great grands!!
My husband and I met on the first day in my very first college class ever. As a senior in high school I applied and looked at colleges then made my decision. At the last minute right before graduation I was panicing, I didn’t feel sure at all about my decision. I wanted to go to college, I wanted to leave home, I wanted new expirences, I just didn’t think I was going the right direction. So I withdrew from the college I had never attended and spent the summer trying to decide what I would do. On the last day to enroll I went to the local community college because I had thought of nothing better. I took a bunch of random classes that interested me and were still open. My very first one was Biology, a class that met three times a week, twice for class and a lab. I walked into that class very nervous, I didn’t who would be there I knew it met three times a week it would be nice to see a friendly face. I looked around and spotted one person who I had gone to High School with and we weren’t in the same “circle” of friends but knew each other and were friendly so I selected a seat by her. That seat turned out to be my fate, the best decision I ever made. It was right beside a very nice guy with a nice smile and great laugh who made me laugh and smile too. He was amazingly sweet and over the next few weeks we got to know each other by spending our biology class passing notes back and forth and in the lab as partners. The complication was that I was technically involved with someone else even though it was not happy or healthy it was long term and I wasn’t sure I wanted to start over with someone new. But meeting my the man who would become my husband made me realize how short I was selling myself and how much more I deserved and would get if I were with him. This gave me the courage to break it off with my current boyfriend for the future I hoped to have some day. I knew I wasn’t ready for something new so I kept my new single status to myself until I could be sure. I found myself giddy to go to any class he may be passing through the hall while I was there and on my Biology days I primped like I was going on a date and I guess I was, sort of. I listened for his characteristic laugh the minute I walked through the doors of the common area, looked for his truck in the parking lot, hoped everyday for just a few words in passing. After a few months, I knew it was time to let him in on my new status through his BFF who happened to be out one night while I was out with some girlfriends. The next day he showed up at my work right before I got off, we went out that night still just friends. The next week, on Valentines Day he sent me a dozen roses to work with a card that read ” I could let the sweetest girl I know be forgotten on Valentines Day”. Then right after that we went out on our first real date on February 18, I realized then it had been love at first sight I just couldn’t act on it at first sight. We were always together after that. We became engaged the following August and got married the next June. On June 12, 1999 we joined out lives together and it has been amazing everyday. There have been ups and downs and hard times but mostly good. He still makes me laugh and smile a lot and We are still happily married, have two beautiful sons and I am thankful everyday for that panic-y decision that lead me to not go away to college and stay home. I’m glad I followed my heart it lead me to find my truest hearts desire. On a side note we both finished college and still live in our small hometown were we have a quiet and wonderful life.
The love that changed my life was born January 11, 1996. I fell in love with her nine months before she was born. During those nine months, my love grew so much, I thought my heart would explode. I loved every little movement she made and felt so incredibly blessed to be her Mommy.
See prior to becoming pregnant, my life had begun a steady downhill freefall. I had no purpose, no understanding of life beyond my own self-created tragedies. I surely did not understand what it meant to love unconditionally. When she was born, suddenly there was just so much more to live and live FULLY for.
In the past fifteen years, my daughter has taught me so much more than I think I will ever teach her. She is the love of my life and I thank God every day that I am allowed to be hers. She is smart and talented and beautiful and and and….so much more.
No this isn’t a story about a romantic love but it is about a deep and timeless love. One that will not be shattered by whim or phase or trend in life. A Mothers love is so much more.
It was mid-summer and I was having a hard time finding anyone to date. My friend dared me to put my name on a telephone dating service. So I did. Around the same time I was moving and advertising for a roommate. Well, of course, with my phone number out there I started getting some very obscene crank phone calls. I changed my phone number with no forwarding.
Toward the end of summer I get a phone call on my answering machine from a guy who said he got my number from the telephone dating service. I called back and asked how he got my number as I had just had it changed. He told me he got the number from a friend who worked for the phone company and when I asked him not to call again as I was a bit freaked out by his methods he replied that he wasn’t a stalker or anything but wouldn’t call me again.
About two months later I still had no luck in the dating arena and decided this guy couldn’t be all that bad if he kept his word and didn’t call me anymore. His number was easy to remember so I called him. I found out he was a DJ at the college radio station and his shift was on one of the nights I went to school. After talking on the phone several more times, I decided to stop in at the station on campus one night. I get there and meet Denny, but lo and behold, didn’t care for him. However, his friend, Bob, was the engineer that night and I thought he was something special.
Neither of us said anything beyond “Hi” that night (me because I was a little shy, he because I was Denny’s friend). I went back the next week and Bob was there again (it turns out that was rare, he usually only came in once every month or so to do the show). Well, this time he mentioned that he had a tough seque coming up. I had found my opening! I bet him lunch he couldn’t do the segue and he bet me lunch he could. A no-lose situation. We were going to lunch!
He successfully accomplished the segue and we decided to meet for lunch on Sunday with several of his friends that often lunched together on Sunday. This was great as we didn’t know each other well and how best to be most comfortable with other people around to cushion our meeting.
The night before our first date, Bob was engineering at a station and Denny was with him. They called me and while we were talking Bob mentioned he was going to Mass before lunch and invited me. Wow! Not only did he seem nice, but he was Catholic, too! Of course, I said “Yes”. I asked my roommate to go with me as a buffer. So we went to church, then off to lunch. We really hit it off.
The next Wednesday, I stopped at the station again and sure enough, there was Bob again. We made plans to go out to dinner and a movie (Fatal Attraction for a first date) on Friday. This was in the middle of October 1987. By January, we were engaged and married in August 1988.
We are still in love and happy as clams 22 years later!
the air was filled with our streaming breaths which formed clouds in the cold morning air i was gasping from our run from my house and away from the peeking eyes of my mother and uncle he grabbed my hand and started to tuge me along behind him his eye sparkleing with unheard laughter we strolled a little way into the woods takeing a set on an old fallen log i was still gasping as i sat down but what happened next stole what little breath i had away leaning over as if to hug me he kissed me with a sweet kiss. this is the story of my first kiss and i still remember it to this day although i don’t remember his name.
While attending college, I was also a part of a close-knit bible study of young 20-somethings. We decided to take a group camping trip one summer and one of the new guys said he’s meet us up there because his cousin was coming to town. Before the camping trip I heard all about his “cool” cousin and how awesome he was. Apparently, this cousin was hearing about the “pretty girl from church” and how awesome she/I was! During the camping trip that cousin and I, well, we ‘clicked’. After that long weekend, he had to return home. And I admitted to my friend that I really liked his cousin. Imagine my surprise when the friend got upset and hung up on me! He was about to ask me out on a date! Whoops!
2 months later, that “cool cousin” moved to my state to woo me and win me. And he did! We were married 3 weeks after I graduated college. This past January we celebrated 5 years of marriage…and we love to go camping every chance we get!
I met my fiance while working at a convenience store gas station. He was a regular customer, always picking up a pack of marboro reds in a box and a six pack of Busch Light beer (YUCK!) on his way home from work. One night after about a month of polite small talk, he came in with a red rose and a box of candy hearts ( it was a few days after Valentine’s Day) I was sitting at a table on my lunc break when he approached me. He handed me the gifts and said, “this is from my friend, Greg” and walked out of the store. I looked out the window only to see him and his buddy laughing in his car as they drove away. I was annoyed and he was being a very immature 27 year old, I thought and his friend was 40 something, and I had just turned 21. Gross! About a month passed by and my future fiance came into the store and decided to apologize to me for his friends, they were playing a joke on him because the friends had thought I was attractive and they knew he didn’t have a chance. My future fiance then gave me his phone number and said if i was interested to give him a call after work. I did. We hung out that night and have been together now for 5 years and have a beautiful 2 1/2 year old daughter!
I was working checkout at a local retail store for an employee to attend Homecoming when his mother came into the store with a really cute little boy of about 3. I was talking to the mother and picking with the little boy (her nephew) while I was ringing up her sale. The next day I was asked out on a blind date with the little boy’s dad. When we met for the first time I was blown away! This very sexy man arrived with a dozen yellow roses and we took our kids – my daughter, his son- to the zoo. He even asked to hold my hand! Riding home my daughter started running a fever and as I looked through her diaper bag I realized that I didn’t have anything for fever and pain – but my gorgeous hero did! My Fairy Godmother must have really been working overtime because she brought me a true Prince! After 17 years he still opens doors for me, cooks, cleans, and helps with the kids – what more could any woman want!
My love story goes back to when I had just turned seventeen. Like serial monogamy, I had “gone steady” with two young men by the time I a senior in high school. The summer before my senior year, I spent at the Governor’s School as a student of the French language. My steady boyfriend wrote me every day all summer long so you can imagine the shock I felt when on our first date after my return, he announced that we should see other people. My pride was hurt!! He and I went to a “luau” birthday party twin classmates had invited us to. At the Luau I met an underclassman whose name is Tommy. He is an artist and very handsome. I know it was ugly but I left the Luau with Tommy. My old boyfriend was paid back for what he had requested!
After several months of dating, Tommy gave me his Key Club pin and asked me to go steady! I proudly wore the pin and found to my amazement that fellow seniors were disgusted with me. I was dating a sophomore. Tommy was no ordinary sophomore. He painted the sets for the senior play. The way he asked me on our first date was to give me a painting he had done of my yearbook picture. It was done in pastels and I have kept it now for 47 years!! On Valentine’s Day, Tommy gave me a big box of chocolates in a Valentine shaped box. Because he had to work, sometimes Tommy would be late for our dates. He would always stop by the florist and get a rose to bring to me in apology. He was the most romantic of all my boyfriends of all time!! When I went to college, he wanted to be free to date others. I reluctantly agreed. One of the girls he dated was my own neice. That hurt terribly. I didn’t see him for almost two years. Then he came to visit me at the University once. He ended up being an artist for the Army during the VietNam era. He is now a watercolorist and does exceptionally beautiful work. After over thirty years since we had gone our separate ways, he called me. He must have been told that I was now a widow. He had divorced his wife. He came to visit bringing much of his artwork for me to admire and some to keep. He took me to see all of his collection once. We again went our separate ways. He is now a retired veteran and I am a retired person who substitute teaches. Not long again we talked again. He is still single as I am . He did a drawing of me in my prom dress but was not satisfied with it enough to let me have it. I hope to someday get either the picture I gave him or a painting of it back. Speaking of the Prom, we were asked to leave because he was a sophomore and only juniors and seniors were supposed to come. I still think that was an injustice since he painted the sets for the senior play!!
My story begins when I was fifteen years old. My family had moved to a new town, where I found a youth group from a church to start making friends. A boy from the youth group also ended up in some of my school classes, making us fast friends. With in the year, I had developed a crush on him, even going as far as writing love poems for him in my diary. A few years later, when we were eightteen and graduating from school, we were still good friends. It was pretty sad that after graduation he dissapeard into the military and we lost contact, though I did see his local family from time to time and asked how he was doing. Some time later in my life…fifteen years later to be exact, I found him again through a friends facebook “friend list” page. I sent him a message to say hi, and he sent one back. We started chatting about old times and what we had missed over the years. A week later, we went on a dinner date, and two weeks after that I had become his girlfriend. People said we were like “two peas in a pod.” We had been dating for a year when I had a medical accident. He stayed by my side every second, where most guys would have run away, making me love him even more. Not long after I came home from the hospital, he asked my to marry him. You know how young teens carve initils and dates of a devoted ralationship? I had written one in marker in a small area of wood that was hidden in my parents house as a fifteen year old. It was the only one i had ever written, and it said “ASH + GSR forever 1995.” I look back at that now and I smile. I feel that whatever you call it, fate, destiny, God, or true love; I feel that it smiled on us. Fifteen years later, when we were thirty years old, we found each other again and are now waiting for the day later this year when we can finally make those words true. Forever, on the day of our marrage, August 13, 2011.
Encounter of the Bizarre Kind
On a slushy March evening a friend had invited me to come visit. She took me to the local colorful pub. We were enjoying the evening of good food, beverages and fun with her friends.
An inebriated woman appeared at our table. She started shouting that I was trying to steal her boyfriend, Ronnie. I assured her I didn’t know anyone in this town, except my friend sitting next to me. She persisted. I did my best to ignore her.
At that point the young woman pushed my chair over and I tumbled to the floor. Subsequently, the woman’s mother showed up screaming, don’t hit Gloria. I had no intention of hitting anyone. I was on the floor. My friend suggested she take Gloria away and they left.
Remember I said it was a slushy evening? I landed in the stuff that gets tracked in from outside. My clothes were a mess. The waitress gave me towels to clean up a bit and I put my coat on to cover the dress.
Later that evening, I was introduced to a Ronnie. Was this Gloria’s Ronnie? He swore Gloria wasn’t his girlfriend. The relationship was only in Gloria’s mind. I showed him my clothes and told him, that in my opinion, he owed me a dress. He gave me his phone number.
My friend and I contemplated, should I call him or not call him. By the next afternoon we decided I would call to see if he was serious when he said he would replace the dress. He was. He met us at a shopping mall and bought me a dress. And as they say, the rest is history, a wonderful history.
We were on his college’s winterguard team together. It was my first competition and I was petrified. However we did very well and that night, being the modern girl I am, I asked him out. He told me that he wasn’t one for casual dating, and I replied with a very suave “Fine. Then will you be my boyfriend?”
The idea of our dating upset quite a few people due to my age (I was still in high school at the time) but all I remember from our beginning is that he held my hand all the way back from the competition- a three hour drive.
When my daughter was planning a 25th anniversary party for her Dad and me in 2004, I wasn’t thrilled. Ours was not really a marriage that merited celebration. The parents of eight children, and living on one income, we’d become bogged down by bills and babies. Two years later, when the youngest of our children was just three years old, my husband David was diagnosed with oral cancer. At the thought of losing him, I suddenly realized just how much he meant to me. During several months of treatment that included a radical surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, I cared for my husband’s physical needs, and in the process of caring for him, fell in love with him all over again, and he did the same with me. For the first time in our marriage, he came first, and that meant the world to him. Ever since then, our marriage has been better than ever. At the ripe old ages of 48 and 57, we bought our first house. We make time for weekly dates. We are each other’s best friends. I hate cancer, but I will always be grateful that our shared journey through the illness brought us closer. Now, as “grandparents in love,” we are facing a new challenge; that of helping our five-year-old grandson through cancer. In December of 2010, Jacob was diagnosed with a Stage IV Wilms Tumor. Not only can we lean on each other through this, we know how to be there for Jacob and his mother, the daughter who had planned that anniversary party seven years ago.
Winters in the high mountain valley that is home to Utah State University are long and cold. Consequently, there’s not a lot to do on campus other than attend classes and study. The day I met my husband-to-be was the day I opted to ‘take a break’ by doing something a bit unusual – donate blood.
The ARC set up in the student center, and already had a long line of blood donors. I took my place at the end of the line next to a tall, good-looking guy. Soon I was flanked on the other side by another tall, handsome dude. What luck! At 5’10” it wasn’t often that I met guys who were taller than me! We proceeded to get acquainted as we moved through the line, which was long enough that we spent a good hour together.
I’m a shy person who had decided that to have any fun at college I would have to act friendly. When you do, people assume you really are and respond – I became friends with these two guys and ended up dating them both.
My future husband was not the better looking one, but our first date was snow-shoeing, our second a budget-friendly dinner at his apartment, our third a picnic followed by racket ball, our forth rappelling, our fifth a hotdog roast up the canyon, our sixth a drive-in movie on the blacktop, our seventh a dance with two other couples, our eighth a scavenger hunt, our ninth a hike in the mountains, and our tenth was when he finally kissed me – I was duly impressed! Not only was he fun, but he was patient, respectful, ‘thrifty, brave, clean and reverent’…. In short, the perfect man, and 36 years and 7 children later he is still the perfect man for me!
I was a freshman at NCSU, sitting in an auditorium with a couple of hundred other Psych 101 students, and the guy next to me kept sneezing. As the hour progressed, I asked if he was allergic to cats since my cat had slept on my coat. He wasn’t, and he walked me to my next class. We dated during that semester, and after the year went our separate ways: he moved to the west coast and later joined the Army Rangers. I continued at NCSU, but accompanied my anthropology instructor to Mexico, where she was doing her dissertation research.
Sam decided it would be fun to come see me in Mexico, so he did – and decided to propose on April 1st. I accepted, then realized a couple of days later that he had actually proposed on April Fool’s Day. Never mind that it wasn’t observed in Oaxaca – I requested that he repeat the proposal in front of witnesses. He did, and although none of witnesses spoke English and Sam didn’t speak Spanish, amid much laughter, the intent was clear.
We’ve been married 30 years and have two kids. It’s been hard work at times, frustrating at times, joyous on many occasions, and often filled with laughter.
My husband and I met at our local Starbucks. We had both just gotten out of bad marriages, and we’d seen each other once at our kid’s school…but didn’t realize it until we met at Starbucks and started talking. After a whirlwind two year courtship (we weren’t rushing anything) we got married at the same Starbucks where we met! The pastor met us there, and our guests were the customers who happened to be there at the time. Can you imagine going in for your morning coffee and ending up being a member of a wedding?
One of the funniest things about our romance is the asparagus. Once, for our anniversary, I got my husband the required car, flowers (manly flowers of course), and chocolate. He left work on his way to the grocery to get me a present. While there he had (he’s diabetic) a low blood sugar reaction. When his blood sugar is low, he’s not quite right in the head…and I ended up with asparagus instead of flowers! He just stumbled around the store throwing things in a basket…cheese, Pringle’s, and the aforementioned asparagus. We were lucky he made it home on autopilot, as he was quite ill. But forever after that, instead of flowers on major occasions, I am presented with a bunch of asparagus. It always makes me smile. I love us!
I was 13 years old and it was moving day into my family’s new Brooklyn brownstone apartment. We were only moving four blocks from the apartment I had grown up in (heck, I was even born in that apartment — seriously, it was a home birth before they were trendy!), but it felt like a whole other world. I was hoping and praying that there would be a cute boy on our new block, because I was 13 and in that desperate super-crush age range. My parents and I carried boxes, put together my bed, and as the sun started to go down on our first night in our new home, I sat at the window and looked out on my new street. There in the dusk light I saw some kids in the street, kicking around a soccer ball. As I looked closer, I saw it was two younger kids who were playing with what seemed like their older brother. Their handsome, sweet older brother, who looked to be only a year or two older than me. They saw me in the window, and the older boy waved to me and said hi. At this point my Mom walked in, and I gestured for her to come over. I pointed out the window and said to her with hushed excitement, “Look! It’s him! It’s the boy! The cute boy! The one I was hoping would be on our new block!” I could hardly contain myself. That next day the boy and I talked on the street, that summer we were boyfriend and girlfriend, and over the years we broke up and then reunited. And now, sixteen years later, we live together in an apartment on this same block, and could not be happier I moved to this block all those years ago!
I had just broken up with my fiance of 5 years and bought a house. I wanted to celebrate moving on and owning a house but none of my friends were available to go out to dance and drink at the local bar. My best friend secretly called a guy we went to high school with and asked him to take me out to celebrate. He said he would even though he had been working for about 16 hours and was exhausted! I was mad at my friend and so embarrassed and shy but we had a lot of fun. A few weeks later I ended up asking him to help me move my stuff, we connected, played board games and went to the movies together and now we’ve been married for 3 1/2 years! We been together for almost 9 years!
We’ve had our rough spots but together we have weathered them and grown stronger with each obstacle overcome. There really is a perfect someone for everyone, you just have to be patient and let fate have its way.
The setting: a restaurant in beautiful Barbados
A young local waitress/student nurse is greeting customers at the door while laughing at something that another waitress is saying.
Enter stage left: A desperate young man who keeps on coming to dinner hoping to get up enough courage to ask said waitress out. Tonight her laughter has made him bold and he finally makes his move.
One year later: a lovely wedding at a local church.
21 years later: the young couple is still laughing, still in love and now have 2 sons to join the party.
I was in an abusive and dangerous relationship for 4 years in college. I finally got the courage to break up with him and two months later met and fell completely head over heels in love with my other half. I’m still in shock that I can be treated so well!
We first started met in law school on the moot court team. I facebooked him and discovered that we have the same birthday! I am about 12 hours older than he is and this sparked our initial conversation. I first invited him to a game night hosted at my apartment. He ended up staying the night (on my couch, people!) and we had our first unofficial date over McDonalds breakfast the next morning. Then, he graciously went to an opera with me when my other plans fell through. Finally, he asked me on a real date – took me ice skating, and to sushi – only because he knew I liked it – not because he liked fish. I could barely contain myself when he paid for everything and we’ve been basically inseparable ever since.
The most amazing thing he’s ever done for me was come to my grandmother’s funeral. He didn’t know my family and met my entire extended family in one very stressful and sad weekend. At one moment he was entertaining long lost family members, serving food, and keeping me upright and this was after only six months of dating! I fell in love with him in that moment.
He asked me last night if my expectations for the next year included an engagement ring and of course I said YES! I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with my absolute perfect match.
My love is handsome, strong and wild. His heart is everlastingly beautiful, and he is perfectly human. He is real and true, full of faults and saved by grace.
And I have not met him yet.
But I wait for him.
I know he’s out there. I know he’s waiting for me.
We will find each other. Someday.
It was early in the morning and I had just finished a long night in the pediatric unit of our local hospital. I was tired but more importantly I was sad and lonely. It was my 44th birthday, divorced and hating the empty nest feeling I was having. My birthday was today and for the first time in my life…I was alone with no plans for visitors. Oh well, I will just check my email and head off to sleep. What is this?? Someone I don’t know is sending me a birthday greeting…how did they know. I will ask. Wow, it is that easy to find out strangers’ birthdays ! I’ll just have some fun and send b’day greetings to others born on the exact day I was. Sleep now….Hey, some people responded back.
Two days later… lots of responses but this guy and I have alot in common..both R.N.s, both from New England, kids around same ages, and our childhoods were parallel in many ways. Alot of correspondence back and forth…what he wants us to meet.. NO, I don’t know this person. I might end up in ziploc bags somewhere in the wilderness. OK, we will meet. After a short romance we were married and now have been together for 11 plus years. We are best friends, lovers, and two halves of a whole. Love is grand!!
Happy Birthday!
Hmmm… How is my birthdate in an email sender’s address of someone I don’t know on a message sent to me my Birthday? I am a Nurse who works with computers. I just don’t open email if I do not know the sender. But here is a Happy Birthday message for me. Open it? No, it must be a virus. But if so, it is an ingenious one. I opened it.
She had received the same message. Someone had sent her an anonymous birthday greeting. Just to be nice, she decided to pass it on. After a 12 hour shift caring for babies, Dawn had just enough energy to send out a few greetings.
We were both Nurses on our second career. We both had two kids. Her mother was a postmaster, as was my father. Her maiden name was the same as my mother’s too. We both loved to travel. And so it was, this and many other points in common drew us from a birthday greeting I almost did not open to a love relationship that given us 11 years of hope and joy. From California to Vermont, through the internet, we got to know each other. Our relationship blossomed and grew.
At first she did not want to meet me. Her family and friends cautioned her. Internet relationships are trouble. But we got to know each other through emails and instant messages and phone calls. I went back East for a family function and she consented to meet me at Franconia State Park in New Hampshire.
My heart leapt as she stepped out of the car. She came around the back of the car and in that moment I knew this was the woman with whom I wanted to spend the rest of my life.
Our love story is very Generation X. I had ended a relationship right before the holidays and was updating a dating profile on the website OKCupid. He also had gotten out of a serious relationship one month prior and decided to sign online to the same dating website. We lived 3 states away from one another, so neither of us came into each other’s searches, as we both didn’t look more than an hour out of our areas.
That particular day, my photo updates posted on the main screen of the site as it loaded on his computer. He said he saw my beautiful face and had to take a peek at my profile. Well, it just so happened that we were 95% compatible, with only 4 questions answered differently between us two. (on the site, you answer questions and they compare it to answers of other people to give you a match percentage.)
He sent me a nonchalant message about our compatibility and how he “wanted to talk to someone who could possibly be that close to a match.” Well, one conversation led to another. That led to a phone call on New Year’s and then more calls. The whole time we were flirting but understood that such a distance is unrealistic, especially since we never met.
Well, on a whim, he decided to take a trip to my state to meet me for the first time. We were still only friends and we only had about 4 hours together, as I had to work that night.
I walked into Barnes & Noble and looked around to find him. As I looked straight ahead, he looked up and our eyes met. My heart was taken over by love.
From there, we started a relationship two months later, visited each other once a month for about a year, and about 9 months ago he moved from Michigan to Pennsylvania to live with me and continue our romance.
If I never updated my profile that night and if he never logged in at that exact moment, we would have never met and fallen in love.
My mother and my husband’s father met at a mutual friend’s house at their Christmas Party. They decided we should meet. At the time, I lived in Texas and Nick lived in Nebraska. For two years, our parents tried to get us together. In 2002, we finally met at this same couple’s Fourth of July party. I had come to NE to visit for a month. We only spent about ten minutes talking, because I had to leave. I thought he had a nice smile and was a good dresser. The next day, he called and invited me to go boating with him. We spent 4 hours floating down the Missouri River talking about our entire lives. I felt like I had known him forever. We had so much in common. I was supposed to go with my sister and her kids to the movies after our date. I invited him to go with us and he agreed. When the movie was over, he asked me out to dinner. After dinner, he drove me to my sister’s house and we sat and talked until 11 p.m. Our first date lasted about 12 hours. Needless to say, we spent the rest of my vacation together. A few days after I returned to Texas, he sent me a cell phone, so we could talk every night and not have outrageous phone bills. My birthday was two weeks later and he came to visit for two weeks. During his visit, we discussed whether he would move to TX or I would move to NE. It was easier for me to move, so I applied for teaching jobs in Omaha. His mom accidently ran into a friend who worked for one of the districts that I had applied to. She mentioned my name and the personnel dept. called the next day and scheduled an interview. They hired me in Jan. and I moved back to Omaha in June of 2003. We talked everyday and I came home to visit several times prior to my return to NE. For Valentine’s day, I sent him a scrapbook of our relationship. In Nov. 2003, the day before Thanksgiving, he took me out to eat. He asked if I wanted dessert. I was full, so he suggested we get it to go. When the bag came, I thought something was odd about the shape, so I opened it up. Inside was a large box. Inside the box was a scrapbook. It was about our relationship too, but at the end was a diamond ring and a note asking me to grow old with him. It was super sweet and of course I said yes. We got married in June 2004. The couple whose home we met at were the host couple at our wedding. We had our first child in July 2008 and our second in Dec. 2010. We will celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary this year. We have our parents and their friends to thank for introducing us.
My husband and I both had ads on PlentyofFish.com in Sept/Oct 2007 and started chatting via their message system. My now husband works on the road a lot and I asked him one night where he was? His reply was home. I knew home was in my town so I asked what neighborhood. He told me exactly where he lived. I was so nervous after reading his response because he told me 3 doors up on this street. His home (now our home) was next door to my parents but faces on the other street. My parents have lived in their house since 1986 and he lived there since 2002. We ended up meeting that night and have been together ever since. We met in Nov 2007, we vacationed on O’ahu in April 2008, married May 2008, and had our daughter Sept 2008. Our daughter was born at 24 weeks gestation meaning she was 16 weeks premature. It wasn’t easy for us in the beginning but we wanted to be together and did everything we could to make it work. Stronger than ever we’re happy together and our daughter is now 2 1/2 years old. She is so amazing! She is Developmentally Delayed w/ Sensory Issues. She has Occupational, Physical, Food, and Speech Therapies. She works harder than any 2 year old I know. She works so hard to reach her potential. We are truely meant to be together.
If you and your true love are destined to meet, the Universe will overcome any obstacle to get you to the meeting point. Even if it means making you walk 2000 miles in the wilderness, so you can meet her on a remote mountain.
That’s how I met my true love. I was hiking the Appalachian Trail, 2000 miles from Georgia to Maine. Another hiker and I had experienced a series of uncanny coincidences, and I jokingly named the mysterious force behind them “Gladys.” We made up stories about Gladys, the Spirit of Trail Magic, and as we hiked we invoked her help: when we had to hitchhike from the trail to a town for supplies, we joked that Gladys would make sure a safe ride showed up. When it stopped raining: Gladys did it. Anything good that came along: Gladys.
I had set out on that trek because I was unhappy with my life and wanted a change. A spiritual, emotional, inner change; I needed to get to a new place in my life. And although that place wasn’t physical, somehow the only way to get there was to walk, a long, long way. Believing in the journey, I set out for six months of following the wilderness path, with only what I could carry on my back. After about 1400 miles, I sat eating a snack on a cliff overlooking a beautiful valley, thinking about how far I had come. And thinking about the Gladys jokes and how amusing they were. The only thing that would top them would be actually meeting a real person named Gladys, on the trail. If that happened, it would surely be a sign from the Universe that my long walk truly would lead me to happiness.
I packed up my gear, shouldered my pack, and resumed hiking. As I was ascending the next peak, I saw a man and a woman coming down the mountain toward me. Since I hadn’t seen anyone all day, I stopped to chat with them. They were just out for a few hours’ hike. As soon as I saw the woman, it was magic. We stared at each other. Her eyes were beautiful. I knew instantly that we were soulmates and I knew she knew it too. We recognized each other, even though we’d never met before.
The man asked me if I was hiking the whole trail. “Yes,” I said.
“Wow,” he said, “I was just telling my friend Gladys here that there are some people who hike the entire trail, and she said she wanted to meet one.”
“GLADYS? Your name is GLADYS?” I started laughing. I told her the whole story: Gladys the Trail Goddess, the jokes, the Trail Magic. Amazingly, she believed me.
That was 14 years ago. We’ve been together ever since, totally in love, totally happy. I feel blessed that I made that long walk, blessed to know her, blessed to have her in my life every day. She is still, and always will be, the most magical person I will ever know.
Kevin and I were high school classmates and his cousin, Elise, was my best friend. We were casual friends, but we were both dating other people at the time. I had no thoughts of anything ever happening with him, but I always thought that he was such a nice guy, the type of guy who could be friends with anyone. Fast-forward to my freshman year of college, when Elise mentioned that he and his long-time girlfriend had broken up. I had his email address and just sent him a message saying I was sorry about it and asking how things were going, and from then on, we kept emailing off and on through the school year. I ran into him at the gas station when I was home for the weekend, and we ended up talking there for an hour! When I moved home for the summer, after several attempts by him to get together (and me brushing them off because by this time I did like him but thought I was reading too much into things!) we met at Subway for a late dinner. We ended up talking until close that night and decided to go back to my house and watch a movie and talk some more. Before the night ended, we shared our first kiss! That was May 2007, and it wasn’t more than a month or so before I thought this could be the real thing, which was unusual for me and really scared me! We dated for a couple of years before getting engaged in July 2009 and we got married in September 2000. We’ve now been happily married for over 10 years and are the parents of three beautiful redheads – 6 year old Olivia, 3 year old Todd, and 1 year old Rylie. Life has had its ups and downs, but there is no one I’d rather have beside me for the rest of my life!!
Home alone on a Friday night, both of my teenagers out with friends, I started thinking about an eHarmony conversation I’d had with my sister a few night before. Why not, I thought, and I filled out the questionnaire. On Sunday evening, I finally worked up the nerve to look at my responses. Number one on the list was Richard. We exchanged questions and lists before finally progressing to photos and I was stopped cold. He looked like a mean, tough grizzly bear! Go ahead and talk to him, my daughter encouraged me, so I did. Emails moved into phone calls and three weeks later, she and I both went to meet him at the mall where his true teddy bear nature was revealed. If I had made a list of all the qualities that I was looking for in a man, it wouldn’t have begun to describe this wonderful man, and what a relief it was to be able to discuss marriage and relationships with no games involved. We married a year later and will soon be celebrating our sixth anniversary.
I always wondered if I would ever meet that 1 person who made my heart beat faster. Would I be older or would it never happen? I was asking myself these questions at the age of 16! Well not long after asking myself those questions I found out my answer.
As a 16 year old in the Catholic religion I was going to Conformation class, I knew no one in this place. I’m a very shy person by nature and tend to sit in the back, face covered by my hair, nose stuck in a book kind of person. But that did not happen, this guy looks and me and says “No sit here with me and my brother” so I did. I remember thinking wow this is a good looking family! Anyway Conformation class is a 2 year process so I sat with these every week for a year of it not really thinking about anything except just getting this class over with. One night after class the younger brother walked me to my car and asked if I would like to out to dinner one night. I told him that I wasn’t sure and would let him know next week. The next week came and went without us talking about dinner. One Sunday we were taken to a local high school for an all day retreat. As the textbook part of it was over a dance started. John grabbed my hand and pulled me off to the side to ask me to go “steady”. I agreed and from on we were dating. That was March of 1993. A week later he had written me a note telling me that he had already fallen in love with me. I was a little scared! After only a week he’s telling me he loves me?! I was only 16! As time went on were became inseparable and he graduated from high school. (I still had a a year to go) His choice after school was not to go to college, but to join the United States Navy. So in August of 1994, I watched my true love get on an airplane and go to boot camp. I wrote him a letter every single day and mail it not ever knowing he would ever get them. He graduated from boot camp and was shipped off to TN for his schooling. He came home for Christmas I was so happy I skipped school a couple of days just to be around him. On Christmas eve we were at my parents house waiting for everyone to arrive, when he looked at me and said “I have already asked your parents permission now I need yours, Cindy will you marry me?” I was shocked! He put the ring on my finger and that was the beginning of our life together. I graduated high school in May of 1995 and moved to VA to be with him. We were married in October of 1995. We now have 4 children and have recently celebrated our 15 year anniversary.
I never thought when I asked myself those questions as a teenager that I would ever find my one true love. I do believe that God brought us together for a reason.
I met my husband Cory when I was 10 yrs old! We were both home schooled and we played on the same basketball team AND did the same choir. I was 10 and he was 9. (Yes I am older then him)
I ended up quitting basketball that year so we lost touch. When I was 14 my mom started doing a Womens Bible Study at Harvest Christian Fellowship. Turns out, Cory’s mom was doing it too! We saw each other every week for the bible study (the kids did their own while the moms were busy. His mom and my mom became friends and we (plus a few other families) started going to the park after the bible study. Cory and I would sit at a picnic table and play Rummy (a card game) for hours. We both had crushes on each other, but since we were 14 and 13 yrs old we didn’t tell each other. My mom ended up quitting the bible study, so we stopped being able to hang out. We again lost touch. When I was 17 (he was 16) I heard that Skillet (a Christian band) was going to be doing a concert at Harvest Christian Fellowship. I just HAD to go! My brother, and 2 of my guy friends came with me. Turns out, Harvest was Cory’s home church! We ran into each other and exchanged phone numbers but never talked. Later that year, we ran into each other at one of my brother’s and his brother’s basketball games. We were both shy and didn’t talk that night, except for my mentioning prom (I was a senior, he a junior) and he asked me to text him the information. Later that week I texted him, and we just ended up talking ALL day. We were good friends (talking all day every day) for about 2 months and then we started dating and a yr and few months later he proposed! (He was 17, I was 18) We got married 9-1-09.
What I forgot to mention is back when were hanging out playing Rummy all day, our moms made a deal with each other that we would get married. My mom told me about it, and I told her I would NEVER marry him, simply because she wanted me to. Thank GOD I did marry him! He is my best friend and the love of my life. Together, forever!
I moved to Colorado on a whim 8 years ago and didn’t know anyone in the area. Sometimes, when I was lonely, I’d scroll through the online personals. I kept coming back to a profile I was drawn to that said, “Ex-Surfer Looking for My Blue Crush.” A friend of mine kept saying to me, “Just set up a profile and contact him!” I wrinkled my nose and didn’t bother.
Two years later, I put up an ad looking for a roommate on a roommate finder website. Guess who responded to my ad? The ex-surfer! He was looking for a roommate to watch his dog while he worked out of town. He said he felt so drawn to what I wrote in my ad and just had to meet me. We met, and I hated his house (but not him). I called him to thank him for showing me the house, but explained that I was going to move in with a different roommate. We ended up talking for hours. Before you know it, it was 3AM, and he invited me over for steaks in the moonlight. I never left his house, and today, we’ve been married 3.5 years, have a baby boy and another one on the way! Guess that ex-surfer found his blue crush after all!
I met him at a gas station in New Mexico. I was driving to California by myself. It was June and very, very hot.
He was not a handsome man, although he was striking, and seemed a lot older, so I didn’t want to make eye contact. I remember wearing a beat-up orange scarf in my hair. He grinned at me and told me he liked the scarf. I curtly thanked him and was about to get into my car when he asked if I’d like to join him for lunch. I said yes for 3 reasons: he seemed kind, was respectful, and didn’t offer to drive me to the diner.
The diner was so small I’m not sure it had a name. We didn’t talk much, but I felt utterly comfortable. I found out he was actually my age and that he was traveling to look for work. Totally out of character, I asked him to show me the sights in New Mexico. He talked me into rigging my SUV to his pickup. That’s how we traveled for 2 weeks. We never kissed or held hands – we just talked mostly. I even met his elderly mother in the old house he grew up in. There was talk of him meeting my parents too.
We both had obligations elsewhere so we separated after the 2 weeks, promising to meet up again – this time in MY hometown. Over the next 7 months, we sent letters and photos to each other, but chose not to call or email for personal reasons.
Our first kiss was right before our elopement – a warm meeting of lips to cheeks, then lips to lips. We’ve had nearly three years now to make up for what we didn’t do those first 2 weeks.
I think you need to get into Anchorage as soon as possible. Tonight if you can make it. Can you guys make it? What can I do to help? I have a car there you can borrow. Do you have a place to stay? Go home and pack, I will handle the arrangements. My heart sunk. I could not stop crying. We had only known for six weeks that we were going to be parents, but the time did not matter because we are already madly in love with this little tiny baby that God has given us. I was shaking, David was silent. We packed in silence. A friend came over and cried with me. She put things in our bag, she did not judge me for being confused, she did not judge me for not sharing our news with her yet. She knew the pain to. Spotting = no baby. We paid the fare, $2500, no amount of money mattered. We could not simply wait and see. I looked at the medical bump sheet for the airline. Sarah, must be accompanied by David. Threatened miscarriage, possible ectopic pregnancy. Must bump passengers, they must go tonight. The lady handed us our boarding passes and gave me the look. You know the look – the I’m so sorry for you. It was so late, we were nine hours into the whole terror. How could this happen? Why would this happen. We landed hard three and half hours later. We fought for a rental car, nothing is easy in this state, nothing. Our bags that were marked must ride – did not make it. I didn’t care. We checked into the hotel and I cried.
Neither of us could sleep. This waiting was awful. We went into the doctor’s office at 8:00 on Thursday morning. The nurse was sweet, she had everything taken care of for us. Blood work now, ultrasound at 1:30. I cried again, I said to her, please do not make us wait until 1:30, I need to know now. Please. She sent us over to the ultrasound clinic at 8:35, the ladies were so nice there. They did not care that I could not hold a pen to fill out forms, they did not care that I was weeping uncontrollably all over their counter. They just wanted to give us peace of mind, one way or the other. Julie came and got us at 9:00. She was so warm and nice. She did the ultrasound and I was shaking. She said, we need to do this a different way. So we did, by this point I was sobbing and apologizing to David for not being able to give him a baby. Then Julie said, well I have some good news for you. She told us, I could not believe it. I looked at my husband, my beautiful, loving, strong husband and said now do you truly believe Psalms 37:4 and he nodded yes, we could not speak. Those strong heartbeats – those beautiful strong heartbeats, those tiny little flickers on the screen. Baby A and Baby B are just fine. They both have strong heartbeats and are the perfect size. On the day that the doctors were sure that our baby had died, two little babies were turning six weeks old. God answers prayers. He mends hearts and he renews faith. I do not really know how we are going to do it, but we are already in love with Baby A and Baby B. Our tiny little jelly beans. After so many surgeries, so many medical flights, so many months of no pink lines, against all medical odds, the greatest of these is love.
How can one say there is no God? I saw God on Thursday – I saw his hands. He has breathed the breath of life into two new babies. We cannot wait to meet them. Our sweet little identical babies.
Against all odds, after three complex surgeries, one ovary and the advice of doctors that it is really a long shot. But like Dr. Baines told us from the start, he has never seen a medical condition that has prohibited the creator from creating life.
I wrote this on our mirror a few months ago:
“Delight yourself in the Lord and he shall give you the desires of your heart.” Psalms 37:4
After a completely wonderful pregnancy, Caroline and Glynna just celebrated their first Valentine’s Day.