Tag Archives: WKTV Love Story

Our True-life Love Story

by Susan Lamos

I had just finished cleaning at my Lafayette apartment and answered a phone invite to Paulo’s for live rock and 10 cent beer and wine. I told her yes…but that I’d come just as I was — wearing old holey jeans, my well-worn CMU sweatshirt and Docksider shoes…popular in the late 80’s. The girlfriend did plead a good case of why I should join her, so I did. No extra shower. No extra make up and certainly, not one bit ready to meet “him.”

The club was busy, there was a long line out the side door to get in. The band really jamming with couples crowded on the dance floor and I had a pocketful of dimes. My pretty friend sat at the end of a long table with co-workers. She looked fabulous! Her long brown curls coifed just so. Dramatic eye makeup and shiny lips, she was a knock out! Her Calvin Klein jeans had perfectly pressed creases down the front by the drycleaner.

And me, I looked down at the end of the string in my hoodie which had disappeared into the neck seam, oh well! I took a seat at the other end of the table, stacked my dimes and put my sockless leather shoes up on a nearby chair.

There he was. “Him.” He said hello to all his buddies who flanked my girlfriend, she smiled and appeared to know this man who made his way directly to me and said, “looks like I belong here.” I’ll tell you now…he did. No socks, old tennis shoes, a hole in the material of his pants and a t-shirt. For the sake of time I’ll flash the story forward a bit, we danced a lot – my dimes disappeared and “he was hanging invisible mistletoe over my head by midnight”. It worked!

The next morning he remembered where I worked and called to ask me to lunch. There was a problem though, when his call was connected to a woman who had my same name! She declined his invitation to lunch telling him she was a married woman. His reply was, “you weren’t married when we were dancing last night!” She transferred the call downstairs to me, thank God! All the married women upstairs swarmed to ask what he looked like, where he worked and – and – and! I just knew his name, and that he was really fun and made me smile!

The women peeked through the blinds when he drove in the parking lot; now that I’m older I see how exciting that must have been for all of them. For the record, he drove a blue metallic convertible sports car and you should have seen the office ladies faces when they saw his smile, dark curls and sunglasses. “Bye girls!”

At lunch we discovered we both were left handed. That’s a great coincidence! We talked about our birthdays, I had just turned 21…we found we had the same birthday! After more talk we also discovered our favorite piece of chicken was the wing, which “back in the day” restaurants didn’t have on the menu. When he dropped me back off to work, I was in a wonderful daze the rest of the afternoon and not much was accomplished.

That night “he” asked me to go dancing…what a thrill! When he would arrive at my apartment he would have a clean shirt in his hand and ask to use my iron. My iron! I thought to myself? “Sure! Come on in” I couldn’t believe he would show up to the door and want to use my iron?

We’d go out, dance, laugh and get to know each other a little more each evening and when he would bring me home and walk me to the door he’d ask, “May I sleep on your chair?” “No!” I replied to him laughing a little as he walked away. Sheesh, I thought to myself, he wants to sleep on my couch…yea right!

Each night of the week patterned the same, shirt in hand to iron, great date with lots of fun and at the end of our time together he would ask to sleep on the couch, then the chair and everywhere but the bedroom! Each night when I refused, he happily kissed me good night and walked to his car. I had several conversations with my roommate about the oddity of the iron and how forward he was asking to sleep in our apartment the first week we met! And then, it was Friday.

Friday was very much like each night we went out. He asked for the iron at the beginning of the evening and pressed his dress shirt to take me out. We now had danced for five evenings straight and were up for even more. But this evening when he dropped me off he did not ask the “sleep over” question, but told me that he would be going to Cleveland and would call me when he returned.

This was great news to my tired dancing feet as Cleveland was 4 ½ hours from Grand Rapids! I slept for most of the day and accomplished some chores around the apartment. I was dumping trash in the parking lot when his metallic blue convertible zipped into the parking lot! It was “him!” Had he had driven to Cleveland and back so fast? There he was sitting in the driveway at 5:30pm with a TV bungee strapped to the back of the car! What was this all about?

I was twenty-one then, and didn’t really understand everything that was taking place through this initial week. I only found out later that the evening I met my husband to be, he was at Paulo’s to say good-bye to all his friends. Rich had quit his job of 10 years to take a new one in Cleveland and be closer to his girlfriend, anxious to have him move closer. He had sold his house and had one rented in Cleveland. He had moved his TV and furniture there. All those evenings that began with him at my door, wrinkled shirt in hand, and ended with him requesting to sleep over at the end of the date…he was living in that blue metallic convertible sports car – right there in my parking lot!

We married two years from that first date. It was “him and still is.” All along this was the man of my dreams and will celebrate our 31st wedding anniversary in August. This is our true-life love story!

Rich and Sue Lamos 30 years later, still a perfect Valentine story!
Rich and Sue Lamos 30 years later, still a perfect Valentine story!

 

 

Tragedy Leads to Love

Heart Logo FullWKTV is publishing love stories from our readers leading up to Valentine’s Day. 4 winners will receive a $25 gift card from Eastern Floral. If you would like to enter your love story, email mike.dewitt@wktv.org.

By: Dorothy Tibbe

Jim, A 66 year old widower, and Dorothy, a 58 year old widow, saw each other for the first time at a 1990 Valentine party for a newly formatted “Widows and Widowers” church. Dorothy was in charge of the activities and had planned the event. She was very busy keeping all 37 women and 2 men occupied with various games to get aquatinted with each other.

I am Dorothy, now 83 and a resident of Vista Spring Assisted Living. This is my love story.

I was alone 3 years; widowed after 37 years of a loving marriage. My life was very busy with family and many volunteer activities. I had a few blind dates, but no sparks flamed for any of them.

This church activity was one of my volunteer jobs. I had mailed about 150 invitations to form this new group. Two men were out-numbered by thirty seven women, but we had a fun evening of games, good food, laughter and drinks.

My phone number was on the invitation letter. Jim called to find out more about the party, and seemed very lonesome. He talked about a lady he was dating, about his dog, and many other interesting subjects.

I did not talk to any individual person at the Valentine’s party, so I really did not meet him personally. I just led the group in games and fun.

My Dad fell the following day and I went up north to help my Mom care for him. I told my Dad about the two men and thirty seven women, and Dad said, “You can handle those odds, Dorothy!”

Dad died at the end of March. Jim sent me a sympathy card at Dad’s passing and phoned frequently.

We both enjoyed our phone talks but really had not “met” yet. Jim was hospitalized with a blood clot in his leg, so I sent him a Get Well card and offered to get groceries for him if he needed help, but did not go to visit him.

I spent a lot of time up north with my Mom, but Jim would phone me whenever I returned home.

On June 21st, I had just returned home when the phone rang. Jim said he called me because he enjoyed talking to me and missed me when I wasn’t available by phone.

I replied, “How can you miss me? You do not even know me.” To which Jim responded, “I really like to talk to you and I miss you when I cannot reach you by phone.

I blurted out, “If you miss me so much we should go out and have coffer to get better aquatinted!” He kept on talking, when I stated, “Jim, I just asked you out on a date!”

He was very shocked and hesitated for a few moments, then asked, “You did?” I was laughing at his surprised voice and he said he would be over at 5:30 that evening to take me out to dinner.

Wow! Butterflies were in my tummy because I was so excited, but I really had no time to worry about it.

This was the first day of summer in 1990. Jim had his suburban freshly washed and came to the door with a beautiful bouquet of flowers. He was such a gentleman, opening doors and assisting me!

We went to Grand Haven for a nice dinner, then walked the boardwalk until time for the Musical Fountain on the waterfront. We enjoyed talking with each other in person even more than by phone and Jim tole me his wedding anniversary would be June 27th, a very sad day for him as his wife had only passed away a year and a half ago.

I told him it was also a very sad day for me as my husband had died 3 years ago on June 27.

We agreed to take the sad day and change it to a happy day by spending it together! We held hands after dark at the water and light show, but there were no hugs or a goodnight kiss.

The 27th of June was the turning point in our lives as we both had so much fun spending the entire day together. We went on a boat ride, a dune buggy ride, visited a museum, and spent time just walking around and talking. We ate ice cream cones, laughed and joked. We cried as memories of our sad times came to mind.

As we walked hand in hand, some kids yelled, “Go for it Grandpa and Grandma!” It was fun!

I invited Jim to go to a wedding with me the following Saturday night, but he said he couldn’t because he had a date. I thought I might not see him again.

That Sunday he came over to tell me he had told his “girlfriend” he would not be seeing her anymore because he found the woman he wanted to marry. Then Jim took my hand and said he wanted to show me a picture of his next wife. As he led me to the mirror he said, “What do you think of her?” We both shed tears and hugged and kissed with happiness!

eastern-floralOn August 15th, Jim asked me to sit on the couch. He knelt down and gave me a little white box which contained a beautiful ring! “Will you be my beautiful wife?” asked Jim. Salty tears once again! What a kind a gentle man.

My Dad had gone to heaven and asked the Lord to send me a husband to care for me, and the Lord chose a man so much like my Dad’s loving personality.

We were married September 29, 1990, just three months after our first date. Jim married into a ready-made family and we all love him!

International Love Story

Heart Logo FullWKTV is publishing love stories from our readers leading up to Valentine’s Day. 4 winners will receive a $25 gift card from Eastern Floral. If you would like to enter your love story, email mike.dewitt@wktv.org.

By: Anja Smith

Our love story began much earlier for one of us than for the other. I grew up in a small old town in Germany and after graduating high school I started my nursing training. I went to live in a bigger city not too far away from my home town. I had my own apartment and made friends quickly.

On one of those weekends I went out with my then boyfriend to a club where there were pool tables, young people and music we liked. Undetected by me, there was also a young American service man who took notice of me. He did not approach me and we didn’t speak a word. He was processing out of Germany and was set to go back to the US within the following 2 months.

The following day, he approached his superior with the request to extend his time in Germany for 1 year. His request was granted and he started looking for me. He did not have a name to look for, no phone number, nothing. He just knew he had to find me.

Eight months later I was without a boyfriend and had time to spare. A friend of mine gave me a call and asked if I wanted to go out with her and her husband on a Saturday night. They wanted to play some pool at a local club. Since I had no plans, and I like playing pool, I agreed and they picked me up that evening.

As we approached the club, my friend asked me to go ahead and go inside, as they wanted to grab something to eat first. They asked me to tell a friend of theirs that they would be a little late, but they surly would come in just a few minutes. I agreed after they gave me the friends name and I made my way into the club.

This was a very small club, with only 2 pool tables, and I was standing in the doorway, between the music changing to a new song, I just shouted if there was a Richard Smith somewhere. One young man shouted, “Yes!!!” He turned around, staring at me. I let him know what my friends had told me, that they would be there shortly. As I turned around to sit down on a chair Richard asked me if I wanted to play pool. We did and we had a great night.

eastern-floralThis young man was the same from 8 months earlier, extending his time in a foreign country in order to find the girl of his dreams! We didn’t know we had mutual friends, and he was in shock when this girl appeared in the club asking for him by his name!

We started dating a few days later and he asked me to marry him after 2 weeks knowing each other.

We married one year later in Denmark, had 2 children in Germany and 2 more after we moved to the USA. Last year we celebrated our 25th Anniversary and are looking towards the next 25!

Big Realization at the Big House

Heart Logo FullWKTV is publishing love stories from our readers leading up to Valentine’s Day. 4 winners will receive a $25 gift card from Eastern Floral. If you would like to enter your love story, email mike.dewitt@wktv.org.

By: Tricia Dooley

We only starting dating in September 2014, but I have known Dave for almost 2 years. He has also been a friend of my brother for 20 years. I knew almost instantly that I liked Dave, but the timing was just not right.

He didn’t know it, but thought about him and talked to my friends about him, but that is as far as it went.

eastern-floralOn a Saturday in August, while both of us were working at a U of M football game, I went over to talk to him and it put the biggest smile on his face. The feelings that overcame me during that embrace were feelings I knew I wanted to feel everyday. I used my brother to secretly get his phone number so I could wish him a good time on his weekend up north. Dave’s response was, “Good, now I have your number.”

Our relationship started out very slow at first but I quickly knew Dave was the kind of man I had been looking for. He is so kind, gentle, and loving. I could go on but the list is so long. After less than a month, our relationship escalated and by November we were talking marriage! Then, on January 20, 2015, he proposed.  We will be married on July 10th, 2015 in Traverse City on the beach!

I have meet the true love of my life. It has been a long time for me, but it was worth the wait.

Dating Service Finds a Match

Heart Logo FullWKTV is publishing love stories from our readers leading up to Valentine’s Day. 4 winners will receive a $25 gift card from Eastern Floral. If you would like to enter your love story, email mike.dewitt@wktv.org.

By: John S. Gore

I spent what I thought was a lot of money on a dating service for a prescribed number of dates with women, hoping to connect with someone my age and start a fresh chapter in my life.

The “matching” process started with agreeing to a mutual phone call before setting up an actual date. I spoke with four or five women on the phone; two of whom I actually met on dates. The first lady I took to dinner was a mistake. The second one was nice but considerably older and not interested in dating as much as having a dinner companion – not what I signed up for at all.

Then one evening the dating service called me to ask if I would be interested in talking to a widowed woman my age. Apparently, other men they approached were not comfortable dating a widow. It didn’t bother me. After all, widowhood can happen at any age. The dating service also admitted that although they thought she was not compatible enough with me to be on “my list of potential dates,” there were a few things we had in common that were worth giving it a go. I thought, sure, why not? I needed a positive experience and apparently she did too.

Following several lengthy phone conversations which I enjoyed very much, we agreed to meet for a late lunch in South Haven one hot Sunday afternoon. I still had on the shirt and slacks I had worn that Sunday morning to church when I arrived to meet her outside at Captain Lou’s near the drawbridge. It was a sweltering afternoon to be waiting for a blind date.

Shortly after I arrived, she called me to say she’d been delayed a half hour because of a visit with her grandchildren in Holland. Not a great start to our date, but okay.eastern-floral

She finally arrived, and was beautiful in her sun dress. Anticipating the usual difficulty in meeting and talking to someone new, I was surprised how easy it was to talk with her. We ended up spending over five hours talking and walking around South Haven that first date.

As I reflected on our time together, I realized this was what…or who…I had been looking for: Someone who puts me at ease and enjoys me for who I am. A second date to St. Joseph sealed the deal for me. Ironically, though it was only the second time we’d been together, a waitress commented to us about how well we got along, like a couple who’d been together for many happy years. We laughed and told her it was only our second date! She couldn’t believe it.

That was 18 months ago. After a year of commuting to Holland as often as I could from the Southwest corner of the state, I moved to Holland last fall. Best move I ever made, for the finest lady I’ve ever met – Janice Baron Limbaugh.

Third Girl’s a Charm

WKTV Heart LogoWKTV is publishing love stories from our readers leading up to Valentine’s Day. 4 winners will receive a $25 gift card from Eastern Floral. If you would like to enter your love story, email mike.dewitt@wktv.org.

By: Roselle Havens

It was a very cold November Sunday afternoon at the Oakland Pharmacy in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1945. I had been waiting on tables and serving milk shakes and sundaes to college students all afternoon. I was just a freshman in college myself and was earning my way through by working as a soda jerk.

I heard the store telephone ring but had no time to answer it so I let it ring. Soon, I looked up from the ice cream counter and saw the crotchety janitor approaching me.

“Hey, Roselle, that phone call is for you. Some guy on the phone asked for Jean. She isn’t working I told him. Then he asked for Betty. She isn’t working today, either. Then he asked for Barb but she isn’t working today, either. Then he asked for you, I told him you were here and I’d get you. But I wouldn’t talk to him if I were you because he asked for every girl but you. His name is Dwight.”

After a quick consideration of his suggestion, I decided to take the call. After all, it was my first call from a tall, handsome veteran of the Army Air Corp since I had enrolled in college. I had met Dwight on a bad blind date with another guy and had thought I’d rather be on a date with him than the guy I was with.

Dwight was waiting patiently on the phone. I picked up the receiver and said, “Hello.”

Dwight asked me if I’d like to go skating. “Sure” I said.

“When do you get off work,” he asked.

“In two hours,” I replied.

“I’ll pick you up then,” he said.

The two hours passed quickly. I looked up to see Dwight walk in the store swathed in winter clothing up to his neck and carrying a pair of ice skates.

“You didn’t mean ice skating, did you?” I asked after giving a surprised “Hello.” “I thought you meant roller skating at an indoor rink.”

He took one look at my above-the-knee skirt, sloppy Joe sweater, and saddle shoes and knew his date on the ice was not going to happen.

We went to the movies instead.

Share the Love

Only a week and a half until Valentine’s Day and the first love stories are starting to arrive!

eastern-floralWKTV is asking for your love stories so that we can share them with our community, because love makes the world go round. After reading the tales of love, you can then vote on which story you like best! Four winners will receive a $25 gift certificate to Eastern Floral.

Each love story will be posted onto now.wtkv.org with voting starting February 9th.

If you would like to share your love story (and we encourage you to do so!), send an email to mike.dewitt@wktv.org or write a letter and mail it to WKTV at 5261 Clyde Park Avenue Southwest, Wyoming, MI 49509.

Every love story is special, let’s hear yours! Don’t forget to vote starting next week.