A Love Story

I'm a sucker for a good love story and I heard one last night from a sociologist.

Sitting at my dinner table last night was a very well-known sociologist and his wife of about 6 years. They are both somewhere over 70 years in age, I would guess. Seven years ago, she was on her way from Houston, TX to NC to babysit her grandson while her adult child went skiing. She worked in Houston and almost didn't make the trip because there were problems at work she had to address. But, she was on the plane, aisle seat, and half asleep when she heard the man across the aisle say he was a professor at Chapel Hill. She was a UNC grad, so she leaned across and said, "Pardon my eavesdropping, but I heard you say you were a professor at UNC and I'm a UNC grad." They chatted all the way to NC and when they got off the plane he handed her his business card and said, "The next time you are in NC, give me a call and we will have dinner." This was Thursday. She debated about what to do. She was leaving on Sunday and Saturday night, about 10 pm, decided she would call his office number and just leave a message. Lo and behold, he was in his office and answered (or, as she put it, "Now, what kind of foolish guy is working at 10 o'clock on Saturday?") She said she had this whole speech planned out, but was so flustered she didn't know what to say when he actually answered. But, they talked, they visited back and forth, and are now married.

Both of them had lost their first partners to cancer some years earlier and were rebuilding their lives. The man told me that another sociologist friend, who had lost her first husband at a much younger age, had given him two pieces of advice after his first wife passed away. First, don't pass up an opportunity to meet someone new. Go out, be out there, make overtures, be available for all types of relationships. Second, don't expect your second relationship, if you have one, to be like your first. Don't look for the same kind of person or expect that you will be attracted to the same kind of person.

This couple radiated love at the table. It was so clear that they enjoyed each others company and companionship. Moral: never give up on love.