We asked the BuzzFeed Community to tell us their grandparents' sweetest first meeting stories. Here are the results.
1. Married after the first date.
2. Double-dated.
I have no stories about any of my grandparents unfortunately, but I have one of my best friend's grandparents, Grammy and Grampy, who are like my own. Grampy sadly passed last year, and Grammy was telling us the story of how they met.
She was 19 and worked at a library near the school they both attended. She saw him and was struck by how handsome he was, but never said anything as she was shy and not really into dating. Then her friend set up a double date, but her friend's date was Grampy, and Grammy was set up with his friend. But when they all met up, Grampy was actually into Grammy and not his date!
They started seeing each other but he left town, having transferred colleges to finish school. Grammy thought that would end things, but they wrote to each other all the time while he finished the school year, and when he got back, just days before she turned 21, they got married. They were together for almost 65 years.
We were all over at their house a few years ago in the kitchen. Grammy and Grampy always sat in their spots at the kitchen table, reading the paper or doing a crossword puzzle. Grampy was looking at Grammy, and she looked up and went, "What are you staring at?" and Grampy just responded, "The same beautiful woman I fell in love with 60 years ago."
– Jacqi Prochaska, Facebook
3. Got in trouble for glove-lending.
4. Persisted for seven years.
My grandpa saw my grandma from a factory roof one day and turned to his friend and said, "I gotta have her." So for SEVEN YEARS that man rode his bike from the Bronx to Brooklyn and kept trying to get her to marry him. After seven years she finally stopped saying no and married him. They were married for 61 years before my grandpa passed away a few weeks ago.
— Christina Rivera, Facebook
5. Had a Disney love story.
6. Knocked on doors until he found the right one.
My grandparents-in-law will have been married 57 years this year. Nanny is a few years older than Grandpa and they originally met in Singapore (Nanny is Indonesian), whilst Grandpa was in the RAF. Nanny’s sister was courting one of Grandpa’s good friends.
Nanny moved to London (to be a children’s nanny), and Grandpa saw her again there. He kept trying to court her and she kept refusing because she thought he was a "silly little boy".
He knew the general area of where she lived but not the exact house, so he knocked on doors for a couple of days until he found her.
He was so persistent she decided they could go on a date just to shut him up, and they’ve been together ever since!
7. Helped them escape from a protest.
8. Gave driving lessons.
My grandpa was a mailman, and he got rerouted one week. On his new route, he met my grandma’s family while delivering their mail. He noticed that they were getting Swedish mail (my great-grandpa was an immigrant from Sweden) and my grandpa was always very interested in Sweden. He met my grandma, and somehow her driving test got brought up. She said, "If you teach me to drive, I’ll teach you all about Sweden." And though nearly impossible, he managed to teach my grandma to drive and they fell in love.
– allibew
9. Called each other.
10. Hid love letters in shoes.
My grandparents lived in rural Greece where arranged marriages were the norm, but my grandad fell for my grandma after seeing her, so he used to write her love letters, which he sent to her via one of their common acquaintances. She had to hide the letters in her shoes so her strict father didn’t find them. They were happily married for 60-plus years, they always looked into each other’s eyes lovingly, and they died a year apart on the same day. They were truly each other’s soulmates.
11. Followed an orange raincoat.
12. Promised to grow on her.
My nana and papa met in 1948, when they were 12 and 13. They were playing baseball in a lot near their homes, and my papa kept trying to introduce himself to her but she wasn’t interested. Finally my nana told him that she didn’t like him, to which my papa replied, "My parents don’t like me much either but I grew on them."
They began "dating" then as children, with my papa riding his bike to her house every day, and they later married at 19 and 20.
My papa passed recently at 80 years old with dementia. Before his passing they were inseparable, and he would always ask her, "Are you still in love?"
– jhutc4
13. Asked her to wear her favourite outfit.
14. Met in a flower shop.
Even though my grandma’s brother had been best friends with this guy for over 20 years, somehow my grandma had never met him. Every time they would almost meet, something would stop it from happening. My grandma was married for many years before she met him, and she was divorced by the time she was in her fifties. She owned a flower shop at the time, and one day, after being alone for a few years, fate stepped in. She was finally introduced to her brother’s best friend, the man who would become my papa.
After only two weeks of knowing each other, he asked her to marry him as he "didn’t want to waste any more time". They got married two years before I was born, and have never left each other’s sides since. My biological grandpa passed away when I was 2, and Papa took me in as his own. I am forever grateful to him for the love and happiness he has brought my beloved nana, for being an amazing step-father to my mom, and a wonderful grandfather to me.
My nana and papa are two of my biggest heroes, and the love they have for each other is eternal. It’s never too late to find your soulmate in a flower shop.
15. Shared maple candy.
16. Took her father's job.
My paternal grandmother was raised in Chile by her British parents. Her father was the manager of a large sheep farm. As a young teenager she fell in love with a ranch hand, someone her family deemed unsuitable, and she was shipped off to a boarding school in England.
A few years later she found herself a young widow with three small children. A letter came through the door one day – that young man had never married, and had climbed the ranks. He now had the job her father had so many years ago. He confessed his love and desire to care for her and her children. She returned to Chile where she raised my two aunts, my father, and a child they were able to have together. They lived a long and happy life together.
– mags1986
17. Made red curtains.
18. Did a favour.
My grandfather emigrated from Germany to Canada about five years after World War II. He was on the boat when a man named Alfred came up to him and begged my grandfather for money, saying any amount of money would help. He was also travelling to Canada, but unlike my grandfather, he'd left with no funds or arrangements. So my grandfather gave him about 25 dollars. Alfred was so grateful he made an oath that he would repay my grandfather, despite his protests. So, my grandfather gave him the address of where he would be staying in Toronto, then promptly forgot about the favour.
About six months later, a knock sounded at the door and my grandfather answered. It was Alfred. But he was not alone. With him was a young lady named Johanna, who was shyly peeking out from behind her brother’s back. "I said I would repay you, so in return, I want you to meet my sister." This small favour led to a 56-year marriage.
19. Discovered a secret weapon.
20. Fell in love with a voice.
My grandfather was a pilot in the war and my grandmother was his point of contact on the ground. They had never met each other but my grandfather fell in love with her voice.
One day he was flying off on a particularly dangerous mission and asked her if he made it home, would she marry him. She just wanted him to come back safe so she said yes. They were happily married for over 50 years.
21. Read his palm.
22. Kept it in the family.
My grandparents are Punjabi Sikhs, born in Malaysia during a time when arranged marriages were very common. Let’s say A (a woman) and B (a man) were arranged to get married. In Punjabi weddings, a bond is created not just between the husband and wife but between both the families, and a huge union is formed. During the time leading up to and after A and B’s wedding, C (A’s younger sister) and D (B’s younger brother) met and fell in love. However, C was engaged to be married to someone else and both C and D were about to start studying medicine in Adelaide, Australia, and Madras, India, respectively.
Over the seven years of their degree they wrote love letters to each other once a week (which they both still have). Finally, upon completion of their degrees, D asked C’s father whether he could have his daughter's hand in marriage. At first, this didn’t go down well as C’s father was very traditional but ultimately he agreed seeing how in love they were, and C and D (my grandparents) have been married for over 50 years (and are still very much in love)!
– kaberid
23. Faked being sick.
24. Threw a balled-up piece of paper.
My favourite memory of my granddad, Frank, is him telling me how he met my nana, Bea, while we looked at their wedding photos.
My granddad was serving in the army and had been in their home town for a weekend off. He was stood on the platform of the train station, in uniform, ready to go back to the barracks. There were a few other lads in uniform there too, bigger and better-looking than him (his words). All of a sudden, a piece of balled-up paper comes flying over the tracks from the other platform. The bigger guy in front of granddad picked it up and looked across the station. The girl who threw it said, “No, not you. The one behind you” – meaning my granddad.
It turned out my nana was too shy to throw it herself, so her friend had thrown it for her. Nana was blushing like mad behind her friend. My granddad gets the paper and sees her name and address on it, he makes sure she means him because he doesn’t really believe it. She does, she nods.
Over the next few months they write to each other a lot, finally setting up a date when he’s next on leave. They marry in a small church ceremony about a year later. In all the photos my nana radiates happiness and my granddad has a "cat that got the cream" smile. He loved her more than anything.
– imogenf2
25. Exchanged love notes at church.
26. Helped them join a fraternity.
My grandparents met during college. My grandad was pledging a fraternity and was told to interview women on campus and interviewed my granny. One of the questions was, "Would you accept a date with this pledge?" She answered yes.
A few years ago when my granny passed, Grandad went through all of his things and found the notebook where he interviewed her and kept it open to that page every day until he passed a year later.
27. Nailed up a phone number.
28. Immigrated to Canada.
My grandparents met in the displaced persons (DP) camp Fritzlar at the end of WWII. My grandfather was an American soldier and my grandmother was one of the thousands of Polish gentile forced laborers taken prisoner by the Germans.
My grandma worked as an interpreter in the camp speaking Polish, German, French, and English. They wanted to marry, but the US was not accepting many DPs and a marriage in war-torn Europe would not be recognised by the US at the time. My grandma was able to get approval for immigration to Canada for work.
After a year in Canada, they married. My grandpa was finally able to bring her to his home in Chicago, where they fit right into the large Polish community there. They were even able to sponsor the immigration of three of my grandma’s siblings in the 1960s from the then-communist-oppressed Poland. Theirs is the ideal relationship that our entire family aspires to have.
Kocham Cię Babcia i Dziadek.
29. Met at school.
30. Got breakfast.
My grandfather had come to Pune (a city in India) from Kerala (a state in India) in search of work back during the British rule. He got a job at a breakfast joint as the cashier. My grandma, who was a young widow, used to come to my grandfather’s workplace to get tea and breakfast for her dad. For Grandma it was love at first sight. (She fell for his green eyes, Dad says.)
She pursued him for a while. Making up excuses to see Granddad, she and her girlfriends came by every day and, well, it worked and they got married later. They were both from two totally different cultures and religions and spoke different languages.
31. Tossed a coin.
32. Hid a glove.
My grandma always lined up a date for her birthday. On the eve of her 20th, in November 1945, she hadn’t found one yet. A housemother at the university she attended advised her to go with her friend to the student union to see what they could "dig up." They went to a bar instead. The two women were the only patrons aside from two young veterans who were too shy to make the first move.
My grandmother, on the other hand, wasn’t shy. They’d nearly given up and were leaving when my grandma said, "I’m not letting this go." She took one white glove off, stuck it in her pocket, dragged her protesting friend back inside the bar, and asked the guys if they would help her look for her "lost glove." At the end of their futile search, the men offered to walk them home.
Once they got outside, my grandma took the glove out of her pocket and put it back on in front of everyone. The man who walked alongside her that night and attended a movie with her the next night (her birthday) became my grandpa.
33. Saw each other at customs.
34. Kept a magpie.
My grandfather lived three doors down from my nana. He had a pet magpie that stole some jewellery from her, so she knocked on his door to get back her jewellery and they fell in love!
35. Had a spot of tea.
36. Paid a fine.
When my grandparents were in college, my grandma stole a "physicians parking spot" sign from a parking lot on campus. Someone turned her in and she was given a fine. She couldn’t pay the fine, so some stranger paid it for her. That stranger was my grandpa. They’ve been married over 50 years. Although no one will confirm it, I have a hunch my grandpa turned her in so he could pay her fine and ask her out.
37. Got a dog.
38. Survived together.
My grandparents were Holocaust survivors and met in a concentration camp. My grandmother worked in the kitchen, and was introduced to my grandfather through his friends that worked with her in the kitchen. One day, my grandfather saw my grandmother sitting on a rock, sobbing. He stopped and asked her what’s wrong. She didn’t answer. He then lifted up her chin and she raised her gaze and he asked her again. She then told him, "I just found out my entire family has been killed. I’m the only one left and I’m all by myself. I have no one."
He then looked her in the eye and said, "From now on, wherever I go, you go, whatever I eat, you eat." (They were in a concentration camp and food was scarce.)
They were together until the day she died.