5 Romantic love stories to sweep you off your feet

Some love stories involve one fantastic moment followed by a lifetime of perfect normalcy. Others start with tragedy and end with bliss. All of these love stories are worth holding out for.

When Jackie married her first husband, she didn’t know he would end up gambling his life away and that she would be left to raise two kids on her own. Thereafter, the last thing she expected was to find love again with a handsome former member of the U.S. Navy Band. But that’s exactly what happened when Bob came along.

From the moment they met, Jackie’s life greatly improved — and in 1963, they married. The two bought a pretty house in a new suburb and had one more son together. Always the life of the parties they threw in their basement bar or by their brand-new swimming pool, the Coreys built a new life together and a new family from among their neighbors. After Bob retired, they traveled the world and spoiled their grandchildren. Decades later, after a well-lived life, Jackie died of emphysema. A week after Jackie died, Bob joined her, leaving behind three children, nine grandchildren and the longest funeral procession the limo driver had ever seen.

They didn’t just plan to grow old together — they planned to spend forever at each other’s side. If your first love is unforgettable, your second love must be unending.

People really do marry their high school sweethearts, but sometimes, it just takes a decade longer. When high school loves Kate and Ryan parted ways before college, they never expected to run into each other again. After college, Kate married twice. Her first marriage didn’t pan out, but her second one seemed like it was meant to go on forever. Sadly, fate had other plans and left Kate a widow with two daughters. Meanwhile, a continent away, Ryan fell in love and married a new woman, only to eventually find himself a widower after his wife died of cancer. Years later, Kate’s daughters did what daughters do best: They found their mother’s high school love and convinced her to reach out to him. Many messages, tons of long-distance calls and one cross-country move later, Kate and Ryan were together again — forever.

At 30 years old, many would say that Lori was past her marrying prime. But the gorgeous brunette worked hard and believed true love would come — eventually. After being scorned in a long-term relationship with a real loser, she was in absolutely no hurry to start another one. Maybe that’s why she didn’t notice or didn’t care to notice the shaggy-haired carpenter who always showed up during her shift at Sherwin-Williams and asked her to get his paint for him. It took many over-the-counter chats and the death of her father (and the subsequent need to escape her mourning mother), but eventually, Lori agreed to go out with that carpenter, whose name was Dave. Once he finally got her into his truck, she never wanted to leave. They spent all night driving and talking, and they discovered that their life plans lined up perfectly. They both even hoped to convert an old barn into a home. It wasn’t long before there was a baby on the way, a wedding in her best friend’s living room and a barn in both their names.

This is a double love story that just doesn’t happen very often! Bea met Everett Kansas in 1942, when the nice young soldier stopped by for dinner at her house. Bea’s parents tried to set up Everett with their eldest daughter, but he just wasn’t having it. Everett was all eyes on Bea, the second youngest. In 1943, the two married but were soon separated when Everett was deployed to Japan. While he was gone, Bea gave birth to their first daughter, Mary — and Bea began raising Mary at her own parents’ house. Bea’s oldest sister didn’t go unmarried for long, though. While Everett was in Japan, his oldest brother, William, fell head over heels in love with Bea’s sister, June. After the war, Everett, Bea, their baby girl, William and June all lived with the brothers’ parents. It was a miserable situation, but eventually, the two couples saved up enough money to move to Cincinnati, Ohio, where they all lived happily into their old age.

Robyn met David just weeks before he broke up with her best friend. A few months later, when Robyn needed a tour guide in the Big Apple for a spur-of-the-moment, late-November trip, she turned to David, who was in the city for an internship. Both timid people, they were pretty shy around each other at first. But David knew the city, and Robyn was eager to see everything. On her last day in the city, they had a lot to pack in before their early-morning flights home the next day. From breakfast at Tiffany’s to SoHo and Chinatown, they rushed from each point on her checklist to the next. On a “shortcut” through Times Square, Robyn grabbed David’s hand to pull him through a crush of people. He never let her go. Their first kiss came later that night on the Staten Island Ferry, their second was in front of Belvedere Castle in Central Park and their third happened when David put her in a taxi to the airport before he headed to work on Monday morning. By Midwestern standards, they had a whirlwind courtship. David proposed eight months later under Fourth of July fireworks, and they were married the next Valentine’s Day.

Each love story is different. Some courtships span decades while others last only weeks, but that doesn’t make any one story less special than the others. In the end, the love story that’s the most special of all is the one that involves you. So, what’s your story?

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