Valentine's Day thread . . . How did you meet your husband, wife, signficant other?

[Mary]

I stole this thread from another forum, but I thought we could use a little love around this place! Valentine's Day should be our "official" holiday!

I'll start it off. Bob and I grew up in the same hometown, and actually the first date I ever had was with Bob's brother. I knew Bob from being in marching band, and I didn't like him. He was never in line, and if you said anything to him, he just ignored it.
Bob says he always liked me. He would see me pass his house, driving my jeep on the way to piano lessons, and he swears that he always knew that we would be together (see, that just proves the old adage, Be careful what you wish for!)
When we finally started getting serious, he had a girlfriend and I had a boyfriend. He got rid of her, and I got rid of him. Four years passed before we got married, but here we are 33 years later. I think we get along because we know how to make the other one laugh. It's hard to stay mad when you're laughing!

Ok, next story, please!

 

[Superbob]

Ah, Mary the Romantic! (Great picture of you and your Hubby, BTW.)

Oh, here goes: I was a young newspaper reporter sent to cover a summer humanities institute for teachers at the University of Virginia. A sweet young (and very good-looking) teacher said she would like to meet me after class and talk about her experience battling a school board that tried to ban "To Kill a Mockingbird" from her creative writing class. Ah, a teacher with spunk -- I liked that! So we met over coffee, agreed about the follies of government censorship of classic literary works, and decided to meet again. Two months later, I proposed. Last fall, Allyne and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary.

How's that for a Valentine's love story, Mary the Romantic?

 

[geebee]

Chris and I met in 1982 when he started working at the same company (in New Jersey) as my ex-husband. My ex and I actually attended Chris' wedding. The four of us became friends for the next few years.

In 1987, my ex and I moved back to Ohio. Chris split with his wife and he moved to Ohio, again to work with my ex. During this same time, my ex and I were in the process of splitting up which became final in late 1987.

A few months later, Chris called me and we went out. We have been together now for almost 19 years.

 

[Mary]

Ah, Mary the Romantic! (Great picture of you and your Hubby, BTW.)

Oh, here goes: I was a young newspaper reporter sent to cover a summer humanities institute for teachers at the University of Virginia. A sweet young (and very good-looking) teacher said she would like to meet me after class and talk about her experience battling a school board that tried to ban "To Kill a Mockingbird" from her creative writing class. Ah, a teacher with spunk -- I liked that! So we met over coffee, agreed about the follies of government censorship of classic literary works, and decided to meet again. Two months later, I proposed. Last fall, Allyne and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary.

How's that for a Valentine's love story, Mary the Romantic?

Now Bob, you know your story has all the right ingredients--young newspaper reporter, idealistic teacher, great topic (trying to ban To Kill a Mockingbird)--for a romantic like me!

Geebee, even though it didn't work with your ex, I guess he's partly responsible for your meeting Chris. Way to go!

 

[WayneGM]

In the local watering hole...

In the local watering hole...

...actually she worked in the same building as me but we did not really know each other. Then one day she and some of her co-workers were in the local bar for drinks after work and I knew one of her co-workers so I stopped by their table to chat. Anyway, we got to talking and I ultimately suggested we perhaps go for lunch sometime and I asked for her phone number. She gave it to me but said something to the effect that typically men don't call even after asking for a telephone number. Of course, I had to prove her wrong and called her the very next day for lunch....in hindsight maybe that was planned....hmmmm

Anyway, we had lunch, but that was the extent of it. Not that we didn't have a good time, but I was just recooperating from a relationship and wasn't looking to get involved at the time. However, 6 months past and I ran into her again....you guessed it, at same bar....and we've been together ever since, over 20 years.

 

[terryj]

I was visiting my grandmother in Georgia for the summer. I was 14 and lived in Calif. I walked to the gas station to buy a coke and he was 16 and working at the station. I accidently left my sunglasses at the station and he found out where my granny lived(very small town) and returned my sunglasses. My granny let him hang out at the house that summer. The next summer I returned and I was allowed to date him. When I was 16 he flew to Calif. and we were married shortly afterwards. I was 16 and we married on his 18th birthday. We lived in Calif. for 10 years and then returned to Georgia and have been here 29 years. We will celebrate 40 years in Nov. We have 3 kids and 9 grandchildren and I can't imagine life without him. We will both retire in 2 and 1/2 years and really enjoy our golden years.

 

[Phyllis]

Dick and I were born and raised in the same city and I graduated high school with his sister, but I never knew Dick until I was in my second year of college as he was 9 years older and never at home when I visited his sister. The summer between the second and third year of college for me, he noticed me on the beach and asked a mutual friend for my telephone number. (He liked the way I walked. ) We dated for two years and then got married. It will be 42 wonderful years, two wonderful children and three wonderful grandchildren, this March.

 

[catwoman]

John & I met in a singles Sunday school class at First United Methodist Church in Fort Worth. This was in November 1979, the first Sunday after several hundred Americans were taken hostage in Tehran, Iran.

Separately, we attended several class events, including lunch after church, but he didn't ask me out until late March 1980. Ten days after our first date, he asked when I wanted to get married -- not IF I wanted to marry him, but WHEN I wanted to get married.

We got married July 3, 1980, 25 days before my 30th birthday. He was 34.

 

[weekycat]

Why...online of Course!

Why...online of Course!

Where else would wonderful, intelligent, beautiful people like ourselves meet each other???

We found each other in late March of 1999 on "The Christian Connection" Matchmaker site. My teenage daughter was looking at my list of "possibilities" and said, "Mom, check out this guy, he sings!" I shoved her off the seat to take a look myself, (although he didn't have his picture posted yet).

We went out on our first date on April 9, 1999. I was recently divorced and he had been recently widowed and neither one of us knew where else to go to meet other Christians, that's why we found ourselves online.

We got engaged on Feb 15th, 2000 and married on Sept 30th of the same year. Our singing hobby is what brought us together and we've been "making beautiful music together" ever since.

We always make sure to warn our children to be very careful about who they meet on the internet though

 

[mmarshall]

I met Erin 3 months after my OHS while I was out "celebrating" Oktoberfest with a large group of my frineds in September 05. With alcohol courage in my system, we started talking that night and in a drunken stupor, I even flashed her to show her my scar...yes, I am a ture romantic. Popped the question at sunset on the beach while we were in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico last summer and we are getting married April 21st...wow, that's right around the corner

My heart was severly enlarged before surgery and there was no guarantee that my heart would get back to normal. One year after surgery, my heart is back to normal and just go for check-ups due to the tissue valve. She is the main reason for that....a great woman, and helps me with my cardio exercises...doctors orders (well, that's what I tell her). what more can a guy ask for

 

[Granbonny]

I became a Stewardess for Delta Airlines in Jan 1961..Age 20...Fresh off the Farm in Alabama.. In 1961..there were only 50 Stewardesses based in Atlanta and 100 pilots..There was this very old Quanset (sp?) Hut...that had everything..Crew scheduling..Dispachers, weather, ect. all in 1 small hut ..the only place to eat..was a cafe about a mile away.. I was eating with 2 pilots when John walked up to our table...they said..Bonnie..Stay away from him ..He is bad news.. ...Found out later he was single. Age 30 and drop-dead Good-looking...All the stewardesses were after him....I bumped into him several times in the next few months. ..He asked me out for dinner....we dated off/on for the next year.....Delta started getting their Jets and I was flying them..and John was still flying the smaller aircrafts.....We got back together the 2nd year and then it was just the 2 of us.......... We dated until 1966..when he asked me to marry him.Sept. 16, 1966..I had to quit flying. Strict rules back then..No married Stewardess..but I was happy to be his wife and stay at home.Our first Child was born in Oct. 1967 (daughter) and son..on Aug. 11, 1969.............John continued to fly until he retired in 1990..35 years with Delta. ..We just celebrated our 40th Ann. this past Sept. So with the 5 years we dated..We really have been together for 45 years................A very happy life together.....Our children/Grandchildren make it complete. We are a very close family..Lucky they live just an hour away..........so, we spend all the special times together.Had lunch with my son today and we will all get together this coming Sunday Night for Valentine's...........Bonnie

 

[Ross]

Oh no you don't. I ain't fallin into no cupid trap.

 

[Mary]

Oh no you don't. I ain't fallin into no cupid trap.

Get in that trap!

 

[Granbonny]

Ross

Ross

Lyn deserves for you to post something....after all 3 boys and all she has gone through with you... Just tell us..how you met her.............She must be a very special lady......... ....and I hope you are planning a nice dinner for her tomorrow. Bonnie

 

[Gnusgal]

In college I was a member of a group called Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. The November of my Freshman year we decided to go camping on Lake Murry in Oklahoma. There was this new guy that was invited along who I'd seen once or twice at other gatherings (ultimate frisbee). When we got to Lake Murry it was COLD and already dark. We had to put up the tents, start a fire, and cook or dinner in the dark. The new guy had a dollar bill he had rolled up and was pretending it was a cigarette. My reaction: "That's gross." He replied "What if I was smoking a crayola?" My good upringing forced me to reply "Stains your teeth" (for those of you who are not initiated, this is a quote from Smothers Borthers' Sibling Revelry). At which point we realized we both were brought up to enjoy the same humor. He noticed I was sivering and offered me his coat. We talked all night long, never getting a REAL good look at one another until the next morning. We became best friends over the next week or so. When I came back from Thanksgiving I went to his dorm room before I even dropped my stuff off in mine. I was interested in someone else, and while he was interested in me he tried to help me get with the other guy. One day, about a month after we'd met, I came to my senses and I realized just how special this guy was. We dated for 5 years before he popped the question. We've now been married for 5.5 years. I can't imagine my life without him.

We've gone to see the Smothers Brothers twice since marrying. We think it would be cool to tell them they were instrumental in bringing us together.

 

[hensylee]

we met at work, fell in love, got married, had 3 children - 30 yrs later we divorced. Then I met my dear Joe who was the kindest, most caring and loving man who ever lived. I lost him after 15 yrs and miss him every day. I know he's always around here somewhere looking after me.

 

[KAJ]

I had been attending Christian Family Chapel (CFC) in Jacksonville, FL for about two years. The singles would meet right after church at Ryan's Steakhouse. In the fall of 1987, Susan was looking for a new church. The first time she went to Ryan's with us, I sat right next to her. We talked the entire time. A short time later, we started dating. Two months later we decided to get "unofficially engaged." We made it official in May of 1988. We were then married on September 24, 1988 at CFC. She was 29 and I was 30. Best decision I ever made .

Karl

 

[twinmaker]

OK, here goes. Steve and I met in Daytona Beach, Fl while on vacation. Steve was from Alabama and was almost 18. I was from Kentucky and had just turned 16. I walked past him at the motel pool and he said, "Hello stuck-up." I kept walking. He was going to have to come up with a better "pick-up line" and did. We spent the following week sitting on the beach getting to know one another. Steve started college at the U. of AL that fall and I started my junior year of high school. We wrote many letters back and forth over the next three years and even saw each other several times. I went to college in Kentucky. We became engaged and married three and a half years after meeting. I was just a baby bride (19 and a half). We have been married 35 years this past December 26th (college break wedding). We have three children (all married), one grandson, and a granddaughter on the way. How's that for a long distance romance?! LINDA

 

[Lisa in Katy]

Bryan and I met while in prison.

That always makes people go "huh?" Or, knowing there are no coed prisons in Texas, some people will ask "Which one of you was behind bars?" Truthfully, we did meet while in prison. We were both working there. He was an ambulance driver and I managed the clinic. We have been married 19 years today, which seems like a long time to me, but after reading some of your stories, it's not so long! We've gotten over the fact that he's a #&*%^ Yankee from Michigan, and he doesn't have an accent anymore. He even says y'all, and hardly ever slips in youse guys!

 

[leecrowley]

It's still hard for me to believe......

It's still hard for me to believe......

but I met my wife of 3 years through Match.com. I had gone through a divorce a few months before, and she was a single mom with a 12 year-old son. Neither one of us were into the "bar scene" much. I had been looking through the profiles on Match.com for a little while, since it was free, and always stopped to read hers for some reason. After a while, I decide to pay the subscription fee so I could send her a note. We began talking by IM for a few weeks, then decided to meet......and we've been incredibly happy ever since. I have to admit I was very skeptical of who I might meet over the Internet, but I have to say I feel like the luckiest man alive. Her first son is a wonderful kid (except when he acts like a typical teenager.....LOL), and we have a 9-month old little boy named Jackson, who is just an incredible bundle of joy. I am blessed.

Lee