HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY 2008!!
We asked our readers to share stories about how they met the love of their life. Their answers warm the heart.

I was the new kid on the block, having returned to my California roots after a painful divorce. My days were filled with a wonderful museum job and the love of my life, my first-grader. The nearest relative lived an hour away. A failed marriage and my church teachings had not soured me on the idea of a new relationship. My heart leapt at the idea of a possible romance with an old friend, but he lived in another state and the timing wasn't right for us.

I attended church singles activities as often as possible. One gal created a dating service. I registered with the idea of meeting people who lived closer to me. My future husband registered also, and one night, even before we met, saw me in a dream. Much of our getting-to-know you experience was written on our application forms. I broke our first real lunch date because I had to pick up my sick child from school. “A likely story,” he said. Dressed as Snow White for a Halloween party I stole his heart, and we pledged to live happily ever after.

Marlund and Shelly Hale

Brian Dietrich did not like science and so put off until his senior year at Lutheran High School in St. Louis the one science required in those days, sophomore biology. Over a frog and a dissecting table he met sophomore Ruth, destined to be his lifelong love. (She tells the story slightly diferently.)

They clicked only momentarily in high school and went their separate ways for two years until Ruth folowed Brian to colege. (She tells the story slightly diferently.) From then on they’ve been together, married 42 years, Simi Valley residents for 26 years. Brian now admits that he pursued Ruth because her initials were RED which, combined with his BRD makes a wonderful license plate for a lifelong Cardinal fan, REDBRD. (Ruth tels the story slightly diferently.)

Ruth and Brian retired after 24 years as teacher and principal at Good Shepherd Lutheran School in Simi Valley in 2005 with three children and six grandchildren. Brian now admits that he has the most wonderful wife in the world. Ruth, at last, agrees with this.

Brian R. Dietrich

How many people can say that they fell in love in the first grade? When I was at the ripe old age of five, I was staying after school to finish seatwork. My first grade teacher at St. Rose of Lima School, gave me extra time to work on things because I was struggling a bit. A dapper, handsome young fifth-grader came into the room to close the windows for his mother. I dragged my feet about finishing my work so I could watch and listen as the young boy talked to his mom, my teacher, about his day. I drew a heart around his picture in my school yearbook that year.

Years went by. As I was working my way through college at a little gift shop here in town, my heart leapt when that same dapper, handsome young man walked in. I knew him! I knew how sweet, kind and thoughtful he was. I felt like that little first-grade girl all over again.

That second meeting happened 16 years ago this April. Three daughters, two dogs and a lifetime later, I still marvel at fate’s hand at our meeting!

Kris Chisholm
about her husband, John

I met my wife, Sondra, when I started a new job and she was the trainer of new sales people. We were introduced, I sat down beside her and it just hit, no words spoken. She stuttered and forgot things when trying to tell me policy. I just stared at her and didn’t hear a word she was saying. I think I made her nervous, just sitting there staring. The days to folow, when passing her desk, I was walking into walls, tripping over things in front of her, because I couldn’t keep my eyes off her. She has the most beautiful eyes. I finally asked her out and she said “No.” Turned out, she was engaged to be married in two weeks. I went home and wrote a 10-page letter explaining why she should go out with me. One month later she moved in. One year later we got married. That was 19 years ago. She is still my best friend and the heartbeat of my life. Years later she told me she went home the same day she met me and postponed her wedding

Peter Carrube

It was on my 61st birthday on Feb 6, 2007, when friends were discussing their first loves, that my turn came up. After I was done discussing my high school sweetheart, they were amazed at my memory and one of them said “You still think of her don’t you?” She asked me a few things about her and the next day caled to say she found her. She found her on the Internet and e-mailed her to see if she was the right one and was she interested in saying hi.

Well, we started off with e-mails, then phone calls. After a few months of speaking about eight to 10 hours per month, I asked if I could visit her. I flew from Kissimmee, Fla., to L.A.X. on July 7. I had sent a large envelope on ahead in May with instructions to not open it until July 11. On July 11, I asked her to open it and she saw, as I knelt down on one knee, a California Marriage license application with my part filled in.

She said yes and I returned to my home in Kissimmee to close my past and plan my future. I left family, friends and my business interests to be with a girl I went with in high school. We married with her family and friends in attendance on Nov. 22 right after Thanksgiving dinner. After over 40 years apart, I can say we’ve never been happier.

Wayne Evans

Our marriage is an Internet dating success story. The man I married is the only person I ever met online. Upon returning home after traveling out of town, a friend discouraged me from feeling limited by the “dating scene” in the small town in which I resided and convinced me to try an Internet dating site. I saw my dreamboat within the first few pages of profiles I browsed, and decided to pay the fee to become a member in order to contact him. The site was unable to take payment from my account, and after a few weeks of repeat attempts, I had just accepted that “NativeAaron” and I would never meet, until I received a message on the site from him. Obviously, the attraction was mutual! After a few weeks, we met at a restaurant in a town between our homes, and continued to fall in love. We celebrate our birthdays only three days apart and I feel like we were born to be together. Almost five years later, we are a happy family with a wonderful 3 year-old, a beloved collection of pets and some advice for our single friends: Don’t rule out Internet dating!

Danay Miller

I met my husband when he was introduced to me as the new employee. I had recently been through a divorce and felt a sense of failure. When he was introduced to me, I stood up and extended my hand to shake his. When our hands touched, I felt this warm sensation go through my entire being and all I remember saying to myself was, “My God, is this the man you have chosen for me?” He was tall, good looking and had the most beautiful smile.

After a couple of months of talking and getting to know each other, he asked me out on a date. His version of a date was a “ride-along.” He was a reserve deputy sheriff. The thought intrigued me, so I said yes. 23 years and one daughter later, he is still my best friend. We have fun together, make each other laugh and enjoy each other’s company. Don’t take me wrong, he’s not perfect, but neither am I, and we love each other and make every effort not to take each other for granted. God has blessed me with such a wonderful husband, and provider.

Luz Espino

Twenty years ago, their eyes met while walking in groups on opposite sides of the street. He loved her brown hair and blue eyes and she knew he was the most handsome man she had ever seen. Rumor said he was a bad boy and she was not available. They kept bumping into each other, and loved the time they had together. His wit, charm, good looks and intense desire for personal and spiritual growth won her heart. Her unusual friendliness, deep acceptance and love won his. One day a fun and fast dune buggy ride landed them in a mine shaft. After a quick prayer Dave miraculously threw Kim out of the deep hole and then got out himself. From that moment on they could not imagine living life without the other. They are complete opposites in almost everything, except what’s most important. They complete each other and bring out the best in each other. They knew they were brought together by God and meant to be together forever.

Dave and Kim Burson

In September of 1970 I had taken my car in for maintenance to F-A Motors in Rochester, New York. While waiting I saw a young lady in a purple velour dress who was a vision of beauty. She was working in the back ofice, but I was too timid to approach her. I paid my bill, drove home and then returned in my Italian convertible thinking that this surely would impress her and we could strike up a conversation; she was not there.

Fast-forward four months to early January, 1971.

Several friends and I were having lunch at the Airport Restaurant in Rochester. Memories of the young lady in the purple velour dress had retreated to the far reaches of my mind. The maitre d’ of the restaurant, Mary, was chatting with one of my friends, when two young ladies came up to the table and had a short conversation with her. They left as quickly as they had arrived, and Mary started talking about how she had forgotten her keys at home and had called her daughter to bring them in. I had taken no particular notice of the girls in scarves and hair rollers. While Mary continued her conversation my attention was suddenly drawn to her purple velour dress. I interrupted her conversation:

“Did your daughter ever work at F. A. Motors?”

“Yes, but she got sick and left in late September.”

“Does she ever wear that dress?”

“Yes. Actualy I borrowed it from her today.”

“I have to have a date with your daughter.”

Mary knew the others in my group and gave me her home number so that I could call Karen. I called as soon as I got home. I explained that I was talking with her mother when she had come to the restaurant earlier, and she had given me the phone number. As fortune had it, Mary was just coming in the door when I called and encouraged Karen to go on the blind date with me. We went out that evening.

We dated every night that week and on the fifth date I proposed. Karen had already replied to her father’s comment “Three nights in a row? Getting serious?” after our third date, “Yeah, I know it’s crazy, but I think this is the guy I’m going to marry.” She accepted.

We were married on the 22nd of May that year. My father, a Methodist minister, performed the ceremony in the Rochester Asbury First Methodist Church, where he had his first associate pastorate some 35 years previously.

We will celebrate our 37th anniversary this year, and, yes, we still have the dress.

W. Richard and Karen Mofett

We actually met 50 years ago. Our parents became friends in West L.A. when we were 7, and we grew up attending the same schools, moving to the same valley suburb and taking Confirmation at the same church, but never dating. We liked each other—but not like that. After high school we started our grown-up lives and lost touch. Like mothers do, ours tried to steer us back together but it never worked. So it wasn't until December 2006 that we accidently reconnected through Classmates.com. It began with good company and movie dates that lasted until 4 a.m. Though the diferences seemed insurmountable we had a lot in common; both divorced young, focused solely on our children, hesitant to venture into a scary relationship with the possibility of love and hurt. Then a medical crisis made obvious the qualities that matter: Stength, Endurance, Devotion and Love. The bond emerged that was there all along, waiting for the right time to bloom. In the spring Steve surprised Nancy by proposing during a visit to the romantic island of Catalina, and we were married July 14, 2007.

Steve and Nancy (Umhofer) Vanderhoof

She was a beautiful redhead, in Graduate School at Brigham Young University— Vickie Julian. I was a lowly sophomore. We both auditioned for a major stage production, “Papa Married A Mormon.”

When the cast list was posted, she was named the leading lady— the Mormon that Papa married. I was cast as the town drunk. Talk about opposites. I came onstage every night staggering and acting drunk. I yelled obnoxiously in our confrontation, and yet I was smitten with her beauty and grace. But how to approach her? She was way out of my league.

Five weeks into rehearsal I risked it all and invited her to a square dance. But she lived out of town, which would make it impossible for me to pick her up. She suggested that I find her on the fifth floor of the campus library Saturday. I dared her to wear a square dance dress.

That Saturday I trudged up to the fifth floor of the library to find this amazing woman, all decked out in a red checked dress with starched ruffled slips—surrounded by books and papers. I was amazed.

Years later I would learn that she had not been studying all day. She had arrived just moments before me and scattered her books around. In 2008 we’ll celebrate 32 years of dancing through life.

Robert Erickson

It was a very cold Monday in Washington, D.C., on March 5, 1990. I was on a short trip to Washington, D.C., and hadn’t yet visited the White House, so off I went to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. to inquire about scheduled tours. As I read a sign with the tour information, a handsome young man emerged from the booth where he was watching over the White House grounds. He was Officer Robert Sonnemann with the Uniformed Division of the Secret Service. Not wearing a jacket, he shivered as we spoke. He told me that no tours were scheduled on Mondays, but that he might be able to give me a personal tour that evening.

The tour was a dream, and when we ran into President George H.W. Bush outside the Oval Ofice I nearly fainted. I left the next day feeling that I had met the man I was to marry. Robert proposed three months later on the exact spot where we met, and our wedding was on Oct. 27, 1991. After 18 years together and two beautiful children, we know we have been extremely blessed.

Jackie Sonnemann

My husband and I met Memorial Day weekend in 1983 while I was in Rosarito Beach with my parents and my aunt and uncle. Scott was there on leave from the Navy with a buddy of his. I asked Scott to dance at the urging of my aunt. She could tell he was in the Navy and she liked Navy boys.

That was a Saturday night, and he asked me to marry him the following Friday when he came to see me for the weekend. It was definitely love at first sight for both of us. We were married four months later. We had people at our wedding making bets that it would not last a year. We collected those bets a year later.

We will be celebrating our 25th anniversary this October. He is my soul mate, and we are best friends.

My aunt and uncle still take all the credit for us meeting. I’m so glad we were both in Mexico that weekend.

Barbara and Scott Hippert

Saturday night, beyond a world of chaos and frenzy, in the not-so-quiet of the night, was my first sight of Priscella. Stunning and exotic, mysterious and magical, she danced into my life that night and I’ve been forever changed. Months passed, but her memory remained. Each time our paths crossed I yearned to know her better, and each time seemed to come and go so quickly. A magnetism brought us together and as we brought in the new year together, sparks did fly and fireworks exploded. As the ebb and flow would have it, another cycle of fasting for each other passed before we would be together again. But by Valentine’s Day, we had both conceded that we couldn’t do without each other. Several years have passed now, and we’ve endured many an ebb and many a flow, but our love has grown like a beautiful rose bush. The flowers of our love and our family are amazing, and I’m thankful to have such an incredible woman to share my life with —I love you!

Rob Blaze

It was exactly 20 years ago this month. I was working in TWA’s baggage department at LAX when an agent from our contracting baggage delivery service came over to me in the back office, where I was sorting baggage, and said, “Johnny Carson is at the counter out front, and he needs to speak with you.” I thought, yeah, right. This guy must be a practical joker, but I’d better go out and check just in case. Yes, there was Johnny Carson! His bags were mistakenly sent to SFO instead of LAX. Larry and I had a good laugh about it afterward, and we are still laughing 20 years later!

Donna Cohen-Gonzales

Early October 1946. My best friend and I arrived at the posh Perino’s Restaurant on Sunset Boulevard right on schedule. I was stil l in uniform having just gotten home the day before. We were there to have lunch with his bride-to-be, her parents and the maid of honor. I was scheduled to be best man.

We found the parents sitting in a booth, but no girls. They had gone to the powder room. My buddy had fixed me up with a few not-very-promising girls before, so I wasn’t anticipating much. We ordered drinks and were making small talk, when I looked up and saw the bride-to-be with the most beautiful girl I have ever seen.

They seated her next to me, and I nearly wrenched my neck trying to get a better look.

As we were about to leave the restaurant, my friend and I were standing by his car when their car came by and slowed. The rear window came down, and there was her smiling face. I said something like, “Enjoyed meeting you. Hope to see you again.” I remember her answer like it was yesterday. “I hope so!”

We married six months later.

Bob Thompson

I first met my husband, Bob, at work while I was being shown around the plant. He was in the shipping department, and I was instantly attracted to him. I sat in the company cafeteria at lunch staring at him to get him to come over to talk to me. He sat with a bunch of guys, so it wasn’t easy for me to go over there and talk with him. I even shooed my female coworkers away so I wouldn’t have any competition. After about two weeks of this he came over, and we have been together ever since. He is the love of my life, my soul mate and my best friend. We have been married almost 33 years.

Sharon Mooney

I lived in Waterloo, Iowa, and was 62 years old, widowed in September of 1993 and thinking about retiring in a few months. I had purchased a computer earlier that year, 1994, and was looking for pen pals. So I went into AOL’s profiles and put in the keyword widow and picked six names of people close to my age and sent out a note to them on Dec. 31, 1994. The next day, Jan. 1, 1995, I received a full page e-mail from a gentleman in Simi Valley, Calif. I didn’t even know where Simi Valley was. The e-mail was so interesting! He told me about his three daughters and seven grandchildren, even about his cat. He was 68 and had been widowed since 1992. Of course, I answered his e-mail, and it took off from there. In a month we sent pictures. In March of 1995 he went to Iowa to visit me for a week, and I came to California in June for three weeks, and it was then he asked me to come back to be his lifetime companion. I sold my house and moved to Simi Valley in October 1995 to be with my AOL sweetheart, Robert Scott, and on Aug. 30, 1997, we were married. This has been the happiest 13 years of my life.

Berdene (Sarah) Scott

In 1949, I was a young aspiring actress who got a job as a carhop at Simon’s Drive-In in Beverly Hills. He was the only one there who could carry four trays at one time. The first time we exchanged phone numbers, he gave me the number for the Beverly Hills Cab Company. In spite of that poor first move, he planned a date, to play Pitch and Putt Golf with two other coworkers, but I wound up with the other guy. Our second date was finally the start of a closer relationship, so he was the only one who knew that the week I took off was to make my first movie at Columbia Studio. I had promised management that I would not tell the other girls, so some of them thought I was just “shacking up” with him. When he began picking me up from work regularly at 6 am, I knew it was true love. We both soon found other work and were married July 1, 1950. We now have two children, two grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. Ain’t love grand?

Diantha Ain

The day I met the love of my life and at age 47 at the time of our meeting I am now convinced this was my first real love, not that I hadn’t dated a lot in my time, but this was so overwhelming and like nothing I had ever felt before. I met this absolutely perfect-in-every-way-girl online while I was living in Tampa, Fla.; it took only five minutes of talking to her for me to fall hopelessly in love. She is the most caring loving person I have ever met; she is intelligent and unbelievably gorgeous and has the most incredible sense of humor I have ever seen. So I left my job of seven years in Florida and moved to California, which is where I was born and raised anyway, and came to Simi Valley where she resided, and after actualy meeting her face to face for the first time we eloped and were married one week later in San Diego. I am the luckiest happiest man alive. Thank you, Teri Hypes, for marrying me; you absolutely take my breath away, so I say to you, happy Valentine’s day, my love. I am eternally yours.

Ron Hypes

The weekend before the fourth of July 2007, in Lake Isabella, Calif., my family was camping there for the weekend and his family is from there. We had seen each other earlier that day at the river and admired each other from afar. Later that evening was the annual fireworks display over Lake Isabella. Not knowing but both of our families had chosen the same turnout overlooking the lake to watch the fireworks. When my family arrived to the turnout I noticed him standing there and felt the need to talk to him. We started talking and talked the rest of the night while watching the fireworks go off over the lake and the sparks fly between us. When it was over we went our separate ways with the thought that we’d never see each other again. Throughout the next couple of days we both were looking for a way to contact each other. I happened to find him on the Internet and sent him a message. We talked everyday and met back up at the lake on lucky 7/7/07. We fell in love and have been in love ever since and the fireworks continue to go off!

Staci Bamford

My husband and I met at church. We had a great Young People’s Group there, and I went regularly. One Sunday evening I couldn’t go. Since the services were open to the whole congregation, my parents often attended. When my mother returned this one particular Sunday, she asked me if I knew a John Moore. I told her I couldn’t remember but that I would find out the next Sunday.

The next Sunday my mother pointed him out and I didn’t recognize him. After we met, I sort of thought he was a wimp. I really wasn’t impressed. Later, on Labor Day weekend, the Young People’s Group had a wiener roast at the beach. John asked me and my girl friend (who lived next door to me and attended too) if we needed transportation. He took both of us. At the roast, I avoided him. If he was on one side of the campfire, I was on the other. Always seeing to it that we never crossed paths.

For future events, he provided transportation for us both and then he began dating us both. As I became better acquainted with him, I discovered I had misjudged him. He was a very nice young man— very mannerly, considerate and just reserved—not a wimp. We found we liked many of the same things, classical music, opera and reading, for instance. These had always been important to me and that is why at 27 I was still unmarried. There were not too many men around who liked such things.

When it became apparent to me that I liked him very much, I started keeping track of my dates and the ones for the girl next door. I had more than she did. Then came the birthday party for her mother on Nov. 30. John and my parents were invited but I wasn’t!! In sympathy, John asked me to have dinner at his house with him and his 84-year-old grandmother. He would go to the party and excuse himself soon and come back to spend time with me. I agreed. Well, he didn’t come back until after 11 p.m.! By that time, I was about to walk home and forget about him.

He rushed in, apologized and gave me a great big hug and kiss. I ended up staying for a while and I am very glad I did because that was the night he proposed. Fifty-nine years ago we were married on July 23, 1948.

Soon to be 60 years we have spent together and don’t regret a single moment. Everyone should be so lucky.

Mary Moore

After 10 years of endless dating disasters, my friend John told me about match.com. I signed up July 2005 and met Pete three months later. We did the typical “coffee date” at Starbucks, but it didn’t end there. We had lunch, dinner and a movie. I knew he was a keeper. We were “fools in love.” Ironically, we married on April Fools Day 2007, which just happens to be my friend John’s birthday.

Debi Gal

Here’s how cupid’s bow and a certain man found my heart:

While in a round dance class, I happened to look across the room and noticed a specific couple. The disparity in their demeanors caught my attention. She was very precise and rigid in her movements, but he was relaxed and funloving. I thought to myself, “I need someone like him in my life. Too bad he has a dance partner. Some women have all the luck.”

Three months later while at a singles square dance a man came up to me and asked for a dance. It was him! The sparks flew. I reluctantly told him, “I’m sorry, but I’m booked for the evening.” While dancing the next tip with my previously arranged partner, I tried to figure out how to dance with him. After the tip I went to him and asked, “How about dancing the rounds with me?” He agreed and we’ve been square and round dancing partners for almost 30 years. By the way, it was a beautiful intimate wedding with immediate family and close friends. On our wedding day he surprised me with a horse-drawn carriage decorated in a profusion of flowers. He not only knows how to dance, he knows how to romance.

That’s my love story and I’m sticking to it!

Fran Stevenson

I met my husband 10 years ago at a party. I was 19 years old. The meeting was by chance. My sister received an invitation from a boy she met, and for safety reasons I went along with her. When I walked in the door, I first laid eyes on him, his gaze met mine, and we spent the evening talking into the wee hours of the night. We have been together ever since.

We married and experienced the births of our two children, layoffs, promotions and new jobs, bad credit, good credit, car repairs, new homes, living with inlaws, paying child care . . . life’s ups and downs. We have grown up together, stood beside each other and helped each other achieve personal goals. We have defined our family and nurtured our relationship and our children. We have survived and succeeded the first decade of hopefuly many to come.

True love no longer feels like something deserved but a valuable treasure that is earned, nurtured and protected. I admire my husband for being an amazing man, husband and father. I am grateful for his love and friendship. I value him. My love for him grows each day. I love you Nolan!

Caroline Gibson

We met with a splash. “Splash” off of First Street in Simi Valley, that is. “Captivated” would best describe my feelings the first time I saw my Love. Nov. 20, 1993, 10:30pm, it was as if time stood still as she entered the room. It was the radiance of her beauty that caught my eye, but it was who she was that stole my heart. My Love is the most incredible, thoughtful, smart, giving, genuine person I have ever known.

Our romance grew to engagement by one year, and we were married within two. Bought a house in the valley by three, first beautiful girl, Madison, by four years, next beautiful girl, Sable, by six and last beautiful girl, Delaney, by 10. We moved to Simi in 2004, coming full circle from where we started. I consider myself truly blessed by God to have such an incredible wife, soul mate and mother of our children. She never ceases to astound me with everything she does. I am honored to call her my wife. You are amazing, “Kim,” and I love you with my very core.

Charles Thomas

The year was 1965. The Beach Boys, Beatles and Rolling Stones were dominating the AM Radio Stations. This was the time when cruising down Van Nuys Boulevard in Van Nuys, Calif., or hanging out at the local Bob’s Big Boy was a weekend event!!

My friend and I decided to stop at the Bob’s Big Boy Drive-In on Sepulveda Boulevard in San Fernando.

While ordering our dinner at the carhop service we spotted four girls across from us in their 1958 Chevy.

We wrote a note: “Can we meet with you gals and get to know you?” We signed the note, “The Two Casuals.” We sent the note via the carhop. They replied back, and I met my future wife Kathleen. The rest is history. We dated, went to the senior prom and married five years later on the same day we met, April 25, 1970.

We have two sons and two grandchildren, and we’ll be celebrating our 38th anniversary this year!

Although the Bob’s Big Boy in San Fernando is gone now, we still “cruise” out to Burbank’s Bob’s Big Boy in the 1961 Impala we dated in to enjoy some nostalgic moments.

Curtis and Kathleen Osterhoudt