Put down the romance novels and skip that Hallmark Channel movie.
In a world full of uncertainty and upheaval, we’re falling in love with these five real life love stories that might as well have come straight from the silver screen.
Yes, it’s true, real love does exist.
Their love’s on “Jeopardy!” baby
Here’s a set-up that sounds more like a Saturday Night Live skit than a rom-com, but it’s 100% true.
Deborah and Carlo Pann met in 1978 when they were both contestants on the game show “Jeopardy!” It was a meet-cute with a musical twist.
It turns out they were the only two contestants to successfully identify the longest song title of an ASCAP record: “How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Loved You, When You Know I’ve Been a Liar All My Life?” originally sung by Fred Astaire and Jane Powell in the 1951 musical Royal Wedding.
Fortunately, that song title didn’t set the stage for a rocky romance.
A few weeks later, they started dating, and within a few years, they were married. Today they have two grown sons, and they still yell at the TV together when they watch “Jeopardy!”
Now that’s what we call full-circle!
Read more about the Panns’ real life love story and others in this great round-up from Real Simple.
Facebook to the rescue
Has someone ever caught your eye at a restaurant or on the bus, but you just never worked up the courage to say hello?
It happens all the time, and usually, we forget about it soon enough.
But sometimes we just can’t shake the idea that we felt a spark and missed out on something great. And now, social media has made it a lot easier to get a second chance at a missed connection.
That’s what happened to Cosmo UK reader Kate, who says that she met her boyfriend after they’d both been checking each other out while on separate family vacations.
Somehow, after they both returned home to London on separate flights, her now-boyfriend found her on Facebook, and the two began chatting daily.
She says their first phone call lasted three hours and now they’ve been a couple for more than two years!
Truly unexpected love
OK, we promised you real life love stories, and this one’s a doozy!
Anne and Jim McDonnell’s life together was disrupted entirely in 1971 after Jim had a series of accidents that all involved relatively minor head injuries.
One night he decided to walk home from a friend’s house but never made it back to Anne. After 24 hours, the search to find Jim was on.
It was anyone’s guess what had happened, but nothing about Jim’s life suggested he would have left on purpose, and there was no evidence that he’d been the victim of foul play. He simply vanished.
It turns out that he had somehow ended up in Philadelphia with total amnesia. (Yes, we are positive this is not a plot line taken from a Nicholas Sparks book.)
He built a new life in Philly working at a lunch counter and becoming an adopted father figure for a young family from his church. His new friends didn’t pry about his past, but they noted he didn’t talk much about it.
You can get all the details in this unbelievable Reader’s Digest article, so we’ll cut to the chase.
Fifteen years later, Jim again had a series of small accidents that involved banging his head. This time—boom!—memories of his old life came flooding back!
He made his way back to the New York home he had shared with Anne and rang the doorbell… on Christmas day. (I KNOW, right?! Not Nicholas Sparks, we swear!)
It didn’t take long for them to reconnect and rebuild their life together after what we could call their 15-year hiatus.
Grab the tissues for this one
Oh, StoryCorps.
There’s nothing like starting your day ugly-crying over some of the love stories that crop up on this NPR segment where everyday people interview loved ones.
This true love story in real life reminds us that it’s never too late to find romance. MJ Seide’s story is just one of ten tearjerkers in this ideas.TED.com round-up by StoryCorps founder David Isay.
MJ’s partner is 12-year-old Genna’s biological grandmother, who had previously been married to a man and raised a family with him before falling in love with MJ. Genna interviewed MJ, “one of my favorite grandmothers,” about what it means to find your soulmate.
“I never thought I’d be able to walk along the beach and hold somebody’s hand because I’m gay,” she tells Genna. And when Genna’s grandmother told her children that she had fallen in love with a woman, MJ says, “that was the first time that anyone was proud to say that they loved me.”
What? I’m not crying, you’re crying.
We just love high school sweethearts
We all know it doesn’t get much better than good old fashioned high school sweethearts. Well… elementary school sweethearts, in this case.
Tangie and Brians’ story is one straight out of a romance novel.
“The first time I met Brian, he put a toad that was the size of a softball practically on my lap. When I started screaming, he cracked up. I found him totally repulsive. I distinctly remember telling my mother, ‘I hate that boy'”.
Ah, young love.
For Tangie and Brian, the rest was history! They started dating in their junior year of high school (with a bit of help from that green-eyed monster we call jealousy) and are now married with 3 children.
“I have a deep, romantic love for Brian. But I also love him because he’s my best friend.”
If that doesn’t warm your heart, we don’t know what will!
