GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — It is easy to become hardened in a world that is increasingly cynical and mean-spirited, where people regularly put up emotional walls in self-defense to keep their hearts from being hurt. 

Understandable… but regrettable. 

For those who are looking for love, it’s a landscape that can feel bleak, but do not despair: There are real, human reasons for hope. 

On Thursday KARE 11 put up a Facebook post asking readers/viewers for stories on how they met their match as part of an Extra on what some are calling the decline of dating apps. We expected a couple of responses, but instead received nearly 180 responses. 

These weren’t one-liners. Instead, they were personal, detailed, and human recollections of how couples met, grew together, and STAYED together, some for well over 50 years. 

Valentine’s Day seems a good opportunity to share some of them with you. Hopefully, you’ll have the same reaction as reader Melissa Ruiz, who perused the posts and wrote “These stories are beautiful, it got me teary-eyed. You are all blessed. These are the old-fashioned ways that I love how people met their “one.” I am hoping to be as blessed as you are all & meet that one. Happy Valentine’s Day to you all!”

Cheers, Melissa…. here’s to true love. 

In 1965, I was in college and was working at a drive-in restaurant and a good-looking guy drove up. He was working the night shift driving a tow truck. As we talked, we found that we had gone to the same high school, same grade, but the school was so large that we’d never met. We started dating, got married the next year. We will celebrate 58 years this August.

Our 2 daughters were best friends in middle school and decided they wanted to be sisters. They set my husband and I up on a blind date. They got their wish. We’ve been together 26 years – married for 22. He proposed on Valentine’s day 23 years ago.

I met my husband in college – we were friends for 5 years. One night he asked me on a creative date and we went bowling. I dropped his bowling ball down his apt steps and felt terrible and was crying. He was comforting me and so soft and sensitive…it was like magnets flipped and we instantly connected in a romantic way. We’ve been married 27 years – built a life together. He still makes me laugh.

Cindee Hendrickson Forby 

I moved back to Minnesota from Seattle. I didn’t really know where my friends had scattered to and so to meet new people I picked up a part-time job at JCPenney Southdale. Met my husband the first night I was working on the floor during back to school in the young men’s department. He was a supervisor. We danced around each other for 3 years until I asked him out. We have been together for 28 years and married 20.

My husband and I met when we were teenagers working our first real job. We lost touch and found each other years later again to get married, have two dogs and two little girls together. The cool thing is while going through old pictures, I found a yearbook from elementary school with a heart around his picture! 

We met at a church during a wedding rehearsal, where we instantly disliked each other. I caught the bouquet at the wedding reception and after what’s best described as the script from a sitcom (filled with humorous exchanges and totally unrealistic circumstances) we’d planned a wedding in six weeks that took place seven months after we’d met. An ironic twist is the wedding we met at was between his sister and my brother. Though their union didn’t go the distance, we’ll be celebrating our 35th anniversary in April.

I met my hubby when we were deejays at the same radio station. I really liked his voice talent, sense of humor, and music choices. I went out on a limb and surprised him with a valentine on that fateful holiday over 40 years ago. The rest is history! We were married the next year. 

I met my husband in a Central Minnesota pool hall. He actually tripped me with a pool stick as I walked by… guess that is what high school boys do when they like you. Two years later we were engaged and have been married over 40 years. Key to a long marriage is friendship with lots of love and laughter!

I was a Bouncer @ The Log Jam in Menemonie in 92. She was shooting darts with the bartender’s girlfriend. Our first date was the employee Christmas Party. We graduated UW Stout in 94.

I was in 9th grade band and noticed a trumpet player with the best dimples ever. He would come to our neighborhood by the lake and swim. One day he asked when I get my license will you go roller skating with me. I got the call and August 16th 1977 was our first date. Still high school sweethearts after all these years.

We were at a bar and there was karaoke. I heard him sing and went up to him and asked him to sing me a song. We’ve been together ever since! We’ll be married 13 years in May and have been together almost 18 years. What can I say, music brought us together and is a huge part of our lives!

 We met at a high school dance our junior year. We celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary last September.

(In) 1987 we met in the choir room during open study hall. We dated for a while and broke up. The following year we were Frank Butler and Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun as well as in Madrigals together. He was a runner and swimmer so had great legs for the tights and pantaloons!! We lasted through distance romances over the summers and his freshman year of college (thank goodness for payphones and “calling cards”). Graduated from college together in 1994 and got married. 30 years this year!

My husband and I met at a Halloween party in 2007. We both interestingly enough had the same costume on! It was meant to be! That Halloween party was the beginning of our forever love story! 

I met my husband online. He emailed me on Valentine’s Day, 2013. We had our 1st date at MOA on February 16th, we were married 5 months later. He was 46, I was 38, neither of us had been married before or had kids. We love being married and spend 24/7 together. He was definitely worth the wait!  

Jessica Hartfiel Thurston

I met my husband at church. He was running a men’s group and I was running a womans group. He says God told him I was the one but he’d have to wait for me. (I know if you’re not a believer you may find this crazy talk) He waited for two years to ask me out. The first time I declined. A couple of months later I agreed. I knew on our third date he was “the one”. We were married less than a year later and have been together for 10 years now. It is a second marriage for both of us and truly a match made in heaven!

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