Valentine's Day Love Stories

In honor of Valentine's Day, Patch asked readers to tell us how they met their significant other.

The following stories were submitted to Patch by readers eager to tell us their life-changing love stories.

Ashley McNeff Behrens met her husband, Adam, at the relief efforts during the aftermath of the Pentagon attacks on 9/11. She was a 19-year-old first responder and he was a 20-year-old private in the Army. She had just completed a 12-hour shift of cataloguing casualties, plane parts, and and documents when she was sitting in a lawn chair with fellow first responders for a quick break. She caught her first glimpse of Adam as he and a group of Army soldiers were on their way to the decontamination showers.

“All of sudden they just started stripping these guys down and scrubbing,” she recalled.

The girls laughed at the unexpected sight. And the men? Well, some of them jokingly began to flex their muscles. “It’s just a weird thing that sticks out in my mind because it was such a horrific scene that it … kind of lightened the mood,” she said. 

Ten years later, their giddy laughter wasn't the only thing to make Ashley smile about the story.

A friend later introduced her to Adam, who was among that group of soldiers. A month later, they ran into each other again at Fort Meyer.  

“You were one of the ones in the lawn chairs at the Pentagon attack,” Ashley recalled him saying. “And I [said], ‘Yes, I was.’"

There was an instant connection, and the two became close friends. In April of the following year, they began dating. Adam left the military in 2005 to attend college and currently works as a civil engineer for the Federal Highway Administration. Adam proposed to Ashley in 2005 and the couple exchanged vows at Saint Mary’s Catholic Church in October 2007. The reception was held at the Army Navy Country Club in Arlington, which overlooks the now-restored Pentagon building.  

Among the 200 guests who came to celebrate their union were some of their friends who served beside them on that day.

“It goes to show that even though 9/11 was a tragedy for our country, sometimes you have to see the positives in situations and the only positive thing for us was that our love and marriage began there. It was a time that we will never forget and we were able to help each other through the aftermath of it.” said Ashley.

Adam is now a civil engineer for the Federal Highway Administration and Ashley is the CEO of United States Homeland Investigations.

Nicole Ratner of Mount Vernon met her husband, Dan, through comedian Chris Matheiu. The following exerpt is from her husband's blog:

"The years passed and Chris's calling brought him to his last Comedy Sportz show before he moved out to Los Angeles to pursue his dreams. I remember it was a busy time of year for me and my dating life was going nowhere as usual. It was sad to think I may never play on stage again with Chris and when I heard it was his last performance, I made sure I was at least in the audience to see him on stage.

I briefly met Nicole at one of my Too Many Daves and the Brass SOULution band gigs about six months earlier. Our mutual friend J'ana McCaleb decided to bring Nicole to the gig at Sweethearts in Fairfax that night as Nicole's first night out after major back surgery. I was dating someone else at that time and so there was only a chance to buy her and J’ana a quick Miller Lite and a bit of polite conversation with Nicole before having to pay attention to my “girlfriend”. It was shortly after that gig that I broke up with that girlfriend.

So I arrive to watch Chris’s last show that Friday night from a late day at the office and found a seat in the back. The place was packed. J’ana had sent me an e-mail earlier in the week to say she may be attending because her friend Nicole was a friend of Chris. Wow! What a small world, right? Now, I had known J’ana for many years and knew the odds of her showing up at an event are not always good. So I didn’t expect to see J’ana and Nicole that night. I was happily surprised to see them sitting up in the 2nd row, so I went up to the row behind them and said “hi”. The both greeted me, but Nicole hardly made eye contact. I spoke to J’ana a bit and found out they were attending both shows (early and late) so I suggested drinks at a bar downstairs between shows. I went back to my seat in the back of the room and enjoyed a hilarious and belly-laughing show that was all about making Chris work his butt off on stage.

We went to Chevy’s for a few drinks between shows and I was lamenting my recent dating mishaps as I usually did with J’ana. Nicole was happy to tell me what a fool I was being and how utterly clueless I was when it came to dating women. I did my best to finish my beer and save face in time for the next show. The three of us returnd to the theatre and sit in the back of the audience (again the place is packed). I sat between J’ana and Nicole. Nicole was busy talking to many of her old classmates from grade school and high school in the rows in front of us. Nicole knew Chris through Brian Cooke and had met Chris through that circle of friends. I ended up flirting with Nicole throughout the show and trying to get her to laugh even though it was impossible to compete with what was going on on-stage. We departed with a hand shake that night and went our separate ways, but somewhere I felt reassured we would meet again.

J’ana had planned a happy hour for our small circle of friends the next night at a bar called Lucky’s in Alexandria. It ended up only being J’ana, Jeff Rupp, and myself attending, but J’ana mentioned that Nicole may show up later. Nicole did arrive soon after that and the flirting continued from the night before. There were a few sparks throughout the night and when we left the bar to say our goodbyes I hugged Nicole. That hug was the moment we both look back on as the moment our relationship began.

This love story would not have come true if it weren’t for Chris Mathieu."

If you'd like to contribute your love story, click on Upload Photo or Video in the upper left hand corner to upload your photo and add a caption.

Happy Valentine's Day!