Love is in the air, isn’t it?
Oh, wait -- that’s just my space heater. No, wait! It’s Valentine’s Day. That’s it! It’s coming up -- and to celebrate, we wanted to share some amazing love stories from local couples.
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This is all part of our new Detroit Love Stories Newsletter, which will feature stories like this one, along with dating advice, guest blogs and more. You can sign up for it here, or by using the form at the bottom of the article. We’d “love” for you to sign up.
5 years later, a reconnection
Stephanie Casola writes: Chris and I met through work years before we ever would meet in real life. I was a publicist and pitched him a story he was working on - so we communicated professionally. I think we could both tell right away we had a lot in common. We began following one another on social media and texting occasionally. We had the same taste in music, drove the same kind of car (a MINI Cooper) and had great banter.
Our communication fell away until about 5 years later when we found ourselves going to the same concerts and events. We finally agreed to meet for a friendly drink at Urbanrest Brewery.
We’ve been inseparable ever since. We moved into together in 2019 and have been traversing the pandemic extra-safely and hand-in-hand with two rambunctious cats. I feel really lucky to have a partner who is supportive, kind and who sees the world in a way similar to me at a time like this.
From ToysRUs, to forever
Lily-Ann Gill writes: I love to tell this story. It isn’t anything fancy, but just a fun story to share. I hope you enjoy it. I never knew starting a new job would change my life the way it did. Back on July 27th, 1993 I was in the break room of ToysRUs watching cashier videos when several people came in and out of the room during that time. (believe me those videos were not very exciting) That’s when he walked in, I looked up and our eyes met each other and we both smiled and said “Hi” to each other as he walked to the fridge to get a drink of his Mt Dew. In my head I said I was going to love my new job.
I didn’t know at that time he was thinking the same thing. I was on break having lunch and he came back in the room, he was also on his lunch at this time. We started talking and I moved from the seat I was sitting at to sit right next to him. We became fast friends. Every day we worked together we would have the same lunch or break, if I knew when he was going on break I would try to get mine around the same time and he was actually doing the same thing. (I didn’t realize he was doing that too) After working together for about a month or so we were talking again and I asked him what would be a good movie to see. (He told me a couple of them and would give me more suggestions before I left for the day) Sure enough he was in the break room when I punched out to leave for the day and asked me what was I going to go see. I said probably “Striking Distance” (it was one he suggested earlier) and he looked at me for a moment and I don’t know what got me to say it but I did. “Why you want to go with me?” He didn’t even think about it before he answered. “Sure.”
He wrote down his phone number for me and told me to call him and we would figure out what time to go. Oh my gosh was this really happening? lol As soon as I got home and thought about it and actually ended up chickening out. I didn’t know what I was thinking. I called him and said I had a family obligation I forgot about and was it ok to do it another night. He said sure. - A couple days later when we were at work he mentioned to me about going and I said yes tonight would be perfect. I was excited and knew this was going to be great. But when I got home and there was a message on the answering machine for me from the family I babysit for reminding me about babysitting tonight. I called them to make sure of the date because I had the next night written down on my calendar .... Nope I wrote down the wrong date, I was scheduled to babysit tonight. Oh great, now I had to call David and tell him I needed to cancel our plans again because I wrote down the wrong date for babysitting.
I felt so bad about it. He wasn’t mad but he said me “If you don’t want to go I totally understand.” “No I want to go I really really do. I am so sorry.” I told him if he wanted I could call him after the kids went to bed and we could talk. He said sure if I wanted to. Well... We actually talked on the phone for a lot of the night. I told him pretty much my entire life story. He was so easy to talk to. - We finally went out to see the movie. By then of course rumors started to go around TRU about us. I really didn’t think much about it. We had a mandatory staff meeting a Friday night and when I got there, one of my coworkers who started working in the customer service area around the same time I started, she said to me “I know someone who likes you”.. “Who?” She said she didn’t know his name, he was the guy in receiving with the long hair. “Dave?” She said yes, as he walked past me with and smiled. Oh my gosh no way! Not long after that David and I had a long talk one night when we were on the phone. We were talking about what was going around work when he said to me “People are reading more into everything than they should.” I could feel my stomach jump into my throat, I began to get nervous and thought this may not be something that he wanted. Then I said took a deep breath and said “Well it isn’t fair, because I think I like you more than I should.” He paused for a moment and said back to me “Well then I think I like you more than I should too.” - I was beyond excited when he said that. It was a relief to know that maybe he was actually having the same feelings I was. A couple nights later he drove me to his house so we could talk again. This was Oct 10, 1993.
We talked for several hours on his couch, when one of his friends came over. I can still see the look on his friends face. He walked in the door, and saw David on one side of the couch and me on the other, closest to the door. He looked at David and looked at me and smiled and said “Ok.... well.... I will talk to you later.” and he walked out the door. It still makes me giggle now thinking about it. Then David came closer to me on the couch where he was sitting right next to me. He kissed me for the first time and we officially started our relationship. He have been together ever since then. We got married Oct 16, 1999.
I know for me it was definitely love at first sight. I think about what if I didn’t start working at ToysRUs? He lived in New Baltimore, I lived in Utica, we didn’t have any of the same friends before we met. Our paths would never have crossed. We were just meant to be. And I am so glad because I can’t imagine my life without him in it.
Tangled in love
Stephanie A. writes: My husband and I met kind of like a Disney movie set up. He was visiting his sister, and was walking her dog around the neighborhood. I was walking mine and the two dogs got tangled up, and the rest was history we’ve been married 5 years together 7.
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