Sometimes the person is right, but the timing is all wrong.
Elizabeth and George met eight years ago.
“I thought he was the most honourable, decent, thoughtful and compassionate guy I’d (ever) met … and that my search was over.”
The couple were happy for a while, but due to conflicting schedules and the fact that they were in different places in their lives, the relationship ended. Elizabeth had other serious relationships, but always compared them to her ex.
Fast forward to 2010. George sends Elizabeth a Facebook friendship request and his phone number. When she calls, he asks her out to dinner. The couple has since reunited and things are going well.
“We are more mature, less afraid and more confident,” Elizabeth says. “Dating other people made us realize what we had with each other.”
Jimmy Buffett called it Boomerang Love. But we’re not talking about that tiresome couple who break up and reconcile every few weeks — seriously, get it together! This is about realizing, years later, that someone you were once with might have been The One.
Shannon and Doug met at a sporting arena where she worked as a hostess. “I was serving him and just thought he was gorgeous,” she recalls. “I was like, ‘Where’s my name tag because I don’t remember my name right now.’”
Doug was visiting from an American city, but the two exchanged contact information and eventually began a long-distance relationship.
It worked for a while. And then it didn’t.
Shannon distanced herself from Doug and started dating someone else, eventually marrying him. But she was never able to shake the memory of Doug.
“I thought about him on my wedding day,” she admits. “Just before I walked out, I wondered what he was doing.”
The marriage didn’t last. After Shannon filed for divorce, a random email from Doug rekindled their dormant friendship. The pair are now engaged and she’s moved her life to be with him.
“He is how people should treat other people in relationships. He’s chivalrous, he’s respectful and he loves me unconditionally. And he thinks that I’m the most beautiful woman in the whole entire world and I feel that every day.”
Life isn’t always a Disney princess movie, but sometimes it has a funny way of working itself out.
“Our hearts know what we need,” she says. “It just took me a little longer to realize that he was what my heart needed.”
Sofi Papamarko is a 20-something writer based in Toronto. Her heroes include Desmond Morris and Nancy Sinatra.
