Most people have a love story, maybe it’s about how they met their partner, their feelings for their child, their relationship with a grandchild, parent or grandparent, or the ceaseless devotion of a pet. Whatever the circumstances, those strong emotions are often hard to put into words, but when Our Town asked readers to try, the results were a litany of sometimes funny, often touching and always heartwarming tales. Here are just a few.
Melissa Nored: “I knew on the third date he would be my forever.”
Sabrina Conaway: “He told me he wanted to be the one sitting on the park bench holding hands with me when we are old.”
Nancy Miller: “I was reading a book; he looked hot in his baseball pants; we both loved the ocean and poetry; together 35 years.”
Patti J Armstrong: “Instant connection as soon as I opened the door, been married 35 years.”
Emorie Côté: “He saw my strength as a beautiful and powerful thing.”
Julie Gritton: “He read The Canterbury Tales with me while we were dating – out loud in the original Middle English.”
Dawn Paul: “We met through mutual friends who thought we’d make a good couple, they were wrong – we made a great couple!”
Jeneen McEntire: “You really can find everything at Walmart.”
Aishia Burnett: “I married my best friend.”
Jossalynn Scott Wright: “I walked through the door of the local dive bar and got butterflies when he glanced at me over his shoulder while ordering a drink; by the end of the night, I jokingly proposed to him in the alley out back.”
Jean Elizabeth Wood: “As I got into his car on our second date I said, ‘This is it isn’t it?’ and he replied, ‘I knew it the moment I met you!’”
Bretny Kraemer: “He was the dusty farm boy who brought in berries from his family’s farm, I was waitressing at his grandparents’ restaurant, and we made lots of desserts with those berries!”
Anna Maria Uselman: “We heard each other’s voice on the phone before we ever met in person and we both instantly got butterflies, I think our souls recognized each other.”
Kristie Hays Bullock: “My little boy was diagnosed with leukemia and Jon happened to be the ‘chemo pal’ volunteer that got assigned to him.”
Renee Bianchi: “I fell in love with her artwork before I ever met her.”
Heath Curtiss: “No one loves a lawyer quite like another lawyer!”
Randy Crain: “I copied her answers in algebra at SHS, been married for 46 years.”
Angi Miller: “I rounded the corner into the living room and fell into the deep blue of his eyes.”
Brenda Zajdel: “He held his hand out to me to help me off the train at Portland Union Station and it was instant love at first sight… 26 years later I still get butterflies when I see him.”
Brianna Wolterman-Baker: “A chaotically, beautiful love.”
Sarah Leiterman: “We met at a party where I put my phone number and birthday with an alarm in his calendar on his super cool sidekick phone and told him he better call me and tell me happy birthday when it goes off.”
Melissa Weiser: “He is a stern and stoic man who softens with me, elevating my feminine energy.”
Cheryl Sorenson: “When Lonny Sorenson and I met, we knew we would be better people together.”
Dennis Meissner: “I invited my future wife to five hours of ‘Monty Python’… she stayed for all five… we were married about 6 months later.”
Kristin Kreitzer: “First time we met, that hug was so powerful and fierce there are no words to explain.”
Kendra Bartelmez- Forster: “We only knew each other for a couple weeks when I got frozen in at his house during the last ice storm, for a week!”
Jennifer Hartley: “Married in 2015, mutual respect, trust and thoughtfulness keep our love bond strong.”
Dana Vafiades: “The best day of my life was the day I gave my husband my left kidney.”
Mary Elizabeth Kelley: “First time I heard ‘I love you Grandma’ my life changed.”
Haylee Lewis: “…And I’ll watch as our firsts become our lasts.”
