Love, like money, doesn't grow on trees. Love can grow over time, or show up in a glance. Love at first sight...well, that often turns out to be just infatuation and it cools quickly - like lava it burns hot, cools, and hardens into a shell that is hard to penetrate. I was lucky, I experienced both a love that grows over time, and withers away naturally, and love at first sight that has grown for more than forty years...putting down roots that the storms of marriage and age cannot pull from the ground.

So I always ask couples how they met. One thing they all have in common, is most folks were not looking for love when it found them. Here is my own story. then a few of my favorites - including what has to be the fastest and grandest story of "love at first sight" I have ever heard. Here we go:

My first love was the little sister of my best friend. We met when I was 12, and she was 10. Over the years I watched her grow and become prettier, smarter, and blossom into a quietly interesting person. By the time I was fifteen, she was my girl. We were friends for a long time, and then something changed. At 18, I asked her to marry me. Four years later...it was over. She found her True Love, and they stayed married for 48 years until he passed. For seven years after we broke up...I was lost and lonely. Until ...
I lived in an Apartment in Austin Texas while I went to School at UT. One day I heard one of the prettiest voices I had ever heard. Me, being me, knocked on the door where the pretty sounds were coming from.

"Yes?" Said a nervous voice from behind the door.

"I just wanted to know if that was a recording or somebody singing."

There was nervous laughter.

"Oh, I am sorry. I am an Opera Singer, and I was just practicing a song for a recital. "

"Well, you are going to win. You sound like an Angel."

The door opened and a woman who weighed more than three hundred pounds and stood only five feet tall beamed at me. She told me she had a five octave range...and control over all of it. I believed her. I had just heard her voice. She invited me to a party at her apartment later that night.

I hate parties. I am Autistic. I never do well and usually end up walking in parking lots. But what was I to do? I am the one who started it all. I came up with a plan: that night I would do a ten mile run, show up at her door soaked in sweat, announce that I had to go shower and rest. Problem solved.

I did my run, showed up sweaty and ready for my prepared excuse. Except I didn't count on the most beautiful woman I had every seen, who seemed to have the wisdom of the ages in her every word, sitting calmly in a rocking chair watching me talk to the Opera Singer. I was ...smitten. I stayed.

I proposed to my Kathy about an hour later. She laughed and said I was crazy. She told me she was engaged.
"Well, where's the ring?"
"It is being sized. I get it back in six weeks."
"No ring, still in the game. You have six weeks to change your mind."
"I told you I'm engaged."
"What's his name?"
"Peter."
I laughed. Then told her:
"Peter is the name of an Apostle. KEVIN is the name of a husband."
I went back to my Apartment and called my Mom up in Ohio.
"Mom, I am getting married!"
"Wonderful, what's her name?"
"Kathy."
"What's her last name?"
"Uh, I don't know. It never came up."
"What?"
"Don't worry, I will call her and find out, and call you back."
My Mom laughed harder than I ever heard.
Six weeks later, she sent his ring back...and put mine on. A year later we got married. It was the best decision I have ever made. One of the few I have never second guessed. Kathy says she went home that night and told her roommate:
"Why are all the cute one's short? This guy is crazy, but I already think he is my best friend."

I like our "how we met" story. For a long time I thought it was unique, and fast! Turns out...well, many folks have similar love at first sight stories, but many have the longer slower "friends first and then something changed story." I have heard many of both kinds. Here is the record for the fastest proposal I have ever heard of:

I was on a Cruise Ship and I met a couple just a few years older than me. We got to chatting about how we met our spouses. The woman smiled one of those deep Mona Lisa smiles, nudged her Hubby of fifty years and said:
"You tell him, Honey. I love the way you tell it."

So he did.

He was in College and all of 19 years old. A Freshman. One of his Classes was in a ten story building. Usually he took the stairs, but he had hurt his leg playing rugby the day before , so it was the elevator this time. When he got on the Elevator, he saw a very cute girl who smiled up at him. She was using a cane to stand up.
"What's with the cane?"
"I can't stand without it. I have a rare disease that makes my legs weak."
"But you have such pretty legs!" She blushed. They chatted as the elevator stopped at the different floors. When they got to the top floor, they both realized that they hadn't gotten off at their floors. Back down they had to go.

When they got to her floor, he held the door as she hobbled out. He stepped out with her. Turned her towards him and they kissed. When the kiss was over, he said: "You want to get married?"
"Sure."
He met her after Class to ask if she was sure. She was. They got married the day after they Graduated from College. I met them fifty years later...still married.

I have to tell you, you have to be a heck of a smooth talker to convince a woman to marry you in just a few floors in an elevator! I guess some of us are lucky. Oh sure, you still have to work on building the relationship, none of them grow without a lot of effort. Whether you met and fell in love at first sight, or it just sort of grew on its own over time, the end result is the same: someone loves you just the way you are. I think that is grand.

My Kathy told me on our Wedding night:
"Kevin you will either die in my arms, or at the end of them."
I laughed...I think she is right.
Love doesn't grow on trees...but it grows.