Two Day Magazine

You never know who may come into your world and change it forever...

I don't know about the rest of you, but I think it is always the right time to hear a real life love story.  Grab a glass of wine and read on.

Shirley was a school librarian and a self-admitted "Evan Piccone suit wearing snob" when she met Joe, an electrician who wore 501 Red Tab Levi's, snap-button flannel shirts and cowboy boots.  She had a low key pixie cut hairstyle.  He had a full-fledged permed afro.  

Both were married once before and both had been hurt badly by the people they loved.

Joe's uncle, who happened to be a teacher at the school where Shirley taught, wanted them to go out on a blind date.  

Shirley was skeptical.

"Just go out with my nephew and have a drink.  He's divorced, too. Just go out. Go do something," Joe's uncle said.

Shirley was sick of dating.  Sick of jerks.  Fed up with the expectations put on women when a man bought her dinner.

"I have dated every asshole on earth," she said.  "I can buy my own dinner."

Eventually, Shirley agreed to go out with Joe just to appease Joe's uncle.

He picked her up in his Cadillac and took her to a Mexican restaurant in Pittsburgh.  They ate and they drank and they talked about their lives.

By the time Joe dropped Shirley off back at her condo that night, they had both decided that this was it for them. There would be no one else.

They were married three weeks later.

This year, they celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary.

Shirley and Joe are my parents.  

I've heard this story, in varying detail, my whole life and I never, ever grow tired of it.

What makes their story so lovely is that to this day, they still hold hands. They still laugh. They still get choked up when they tell the story of how they met.  

These two people were to everyone on the outside looking in, a total mismatch. Yet, here they are thirty years later still celebrating the anniversary of that blind date at a Mexican restaurant every year.  

A preppy college grad who taught school kids about the Dewey Decimal System found the love of her life in a honky-tonk, music-loving, union electrician who got dirty at work every day but sure did love getting shined up to take her out to dinner.

There's a lot that can be learned from Shirley and Joe's story.  

If any of you are anything like me or my mom, Shirl, you probably thought at one point or another that there was a specific "type" of partner for you.  

So, you have a Masters' degree?  Good for you.  Parents are doctors?  Great!  I bet you have no student loans!  Think a doctor or high-paid executive is going to make you happy just because of their profession?  Think again.

Your background doesn't make you any better of a partner to someone and specifically trying to find a mate with a specific profession or specific background doesn't mean he or she will be a prince or princess charming.

My short dating career was horrific and my early 20's were tumultuous.  I met and fell in love with Jason at a really unexpected time.  

And, what was even more unexpected was how well we fit together as a couple.  We have two completely different backgrounds and completely different professions, but at the end of the day, the type of college you went to and what you wrote your thesis about has nothing to do with who you are.  

Remember all of this the next time someone you think is your polar opposite asks you out to dinner.  

You may not end up with a swoon-worthy romance like my parents had, but you can give the person a chance.  

And, open yourself up to the possibility that the person you end up falling in love with might not be the person you think he or she would be.

***********************

Do you have a swoon-worthy story of how you met the love in your life? Find Sally on Facebook and tell her all about it...