Love Stories: How Did Your Parents Meet?

In a world where social media, texting and internet dating are a permanent feature in our lives, a good old fashioned tale of romance can be hard to come by.

In fact, aside from the odd grand gesture of love, sometimes it feels like these days, you’re more likely to hear about a relationship starting after a Facebook “like” than a chat-up line in the pub.

So last week, on the hunt for a bit of nostalgic romance, we asked our followers on the Red Letter Days Facebook page to tell us how their parents met.

Here are some of the love stories we received…

• Lorraine Barnes: My mum went to school with my dad and she told her mum she was going to marry him when she was only 5 years old! They married when she was 23 and he was 24 and have been together for 50 years this year.

• Amy Christian My mum and dad was a little bit of fate and a little bit coincidence. My dad had been visiting a fortune tellers to see if he was going to get back with his ex wife, my grandmother was a spiritualist and convinced him to go to spiritualist church with her, he became a regular member and met my mum and uncle. They became friends and after a few months they started to date. They learned while dating that they lived only a few houses away from each other when they where young, their dads had done the same job in the same company knew each other and were friends. And a few other connections like that. My dad even met my mums dad when he was very young. They’d known each other their whole lives without even meeting.

• Kerry Shearer: My mother was completing her nurse training in a Glasgow hospital where a lady was receiving cancer treatment. The lady asked if she had a boyfriend, she replied that she didn’t, and the sick lady then asked if she would meet her son and go on a date. Not wanting to disappoint a very sick lady (who was a widowed mother to eight) my 17 year old mother agreed. She went onto marry him in 1976 (37 years married this March) and had three children. Her mother-in-law (my nana) beat cancer and lived until 1999. My parents are now grandparents themselves to four gorgeous boys.

• Margaret Corbin My parents met at the Hammersmith Palais roughly 44 years ago now and are still together.

• Diane Shipley My dad spotted my mum while they were both on holiday with their families at Butlins when they were 16. He shouted “Oi!” and the rest is history. (Yeah, they’re divorced now.)

• Mary Barton My mum used to travel 275 miles to see my aunt, and across from her was “my dad”. They started writing to each other from Scotland to England, and as soon as my mum hit 18 she moved down to be with my dad. They got married and now have 4 children. The funny thing is that my dad’s date of birth is 19/12/61 – born in the front bedroom of the house at 6.05pm, and my mums date of birth is 19/12/61 – born in the front bedroom of a house at 6.10pm, 275 miles apart.

• Bex Henderson: My mum and dad met in the Blue Orchid in Croydon. My dad kept unzipping my mums boots until eventually my mum had to go and ask him why he kept doing it. It was his version of a chat up line. They got married at a registry office in a kaftan and jeans and got the bus home – yeah, we’re all a bit weird in our family.

• Karina O’Donnell My mum was 16 when she came over to London from France. She lived in a convent of Irish nuns for one year. When she was 22 she came back to London as an Au Pair looking after two children in a flat on the top floor of a four-story Georgian building in Clapham. My Dad was the local police officer who happened to help her  carry her shopping one day whilst she dragged the buggy up the four flights of stairs. They met in February 1962, were engaged in April and married in October. None of this seeing each other, followed by going out, then into a relationship as nowadays!

Got a good love story to share? Tell us in the comments below, or get involved over on Twitter or Facebook.