I met my husband as a joke. AND it was a blind date.
No kidding.
I was hanging out with a mutual friend of ours one day when she made an outrageous claim. “I’ve got a perfect track record,” she said. “Everyone I’ve ever set up on a date ended up getting married.”
Everyone.
So of course, intrigued, I offered my naïve nineteen-year-old self as a test subject, believing I would be the one to break her lucky streak. “I’ll bet that won’t happen with me,” I told her. And then we both laughed.
Guess the laugh was on me. Imagine my surprise when, a few days later, my friend called and invited me to dinner, ending with a casual, “Oh, by the way, I’ve invited our friend Joe, as well. He’s the man you’re going to marry.”
“You didn’t tell him about this?” I exclaimed, aghast
“Yes, but he knows it’s only a joke.”
Despite my reservations, I went to dinner at my friend’s house. I even went so far as to bake a wonderful warm peach cobbler. From scratch.
Which Joe promptly announced he didn’t like. “I don’t really care for warm fruit,” he said. Let’s just say it took a swift kick to his shin by my friend’s husband for him to realize his error.
From the moment he walked in the door, I was mesmerized by his gorgeous blue eyes, his love for God and his extraordinary sense of humor. He was attracted to…well, I really don’t know, but whatever it was, it was enough for him to ask if he could see me again as he walked me to my car that night.
“Just a second while I find a piece of paper and a pen so I can write down my phone number,” I said, digging into my purse. (This was before cell phones, people!)
“No need,” he said. He’d already gotten my phone number from our friends. Slick, don’t you think?
I went home and wrote in my diary:
I hope the name Debra Kastner sounds good because I just met the man I’m going to marry.
Six months to the day later, I did marry Joe. And twenty-eight years later, we’re still laughing.
If you’re married, how did you meet your spouse? If you’re still waiting for that special someone to enter your life, what characteristics are you looking for in a mate? I’ll be giving away one autographed copy of my May 2015 Love Inspired 2-in-1 Classics book The Marine’s Baby and His Texas Bride.
~~Love Courageously~~ Publisher's Weekly Bestselling, award-winning author of 30 novels, Deb Kastner enjoys writing contemporary inspirational western stories set in small communities. She feels especially blessed to be able to include faith as a natural and genuine part of her characters' lives. Deb lives in beautiful Colorado with her husband and a pack of miscreant mutts. She is blessed with three adult daughters and two grandchildren. Her favorite hobby is spoiling her grandchildren, but she also enjoys reading, watching movies, listening to music (The Texas Tenors are her fav), singing in the church choir, and exploring the Rocky Mountains on horseback.
I loved you story! I met my husband the second day at college. He was in my orientation group. We were married two years later.:)
I loved reading your story. I actually had known my husband since junior high. We were part of a youth group at our church and never dated. We were good friends and spent a lot of time together as friends. I even went on a couple of vacations with he and his family. I went to college out of town and he joined the service. When I came home for Christmas break my second year he happened to be home on leave. We got together to catch up.Aall of a sudden realized we were more than friends. By the time he went back to Germany to finish his tour we were engaged. His mom told me she was so glad we discovered what she had know all along – that we belonged together. When he was discharged, 6 months later we were married. I lost him in 1997 after 31 years of a wonderful marriage.
I met my husband in a singles’ Sunday School class at church. He was the oldest one in the class and I was the youngest. He was 26 and I was 18. We have been married for 36 years.
My parents met on a blind date. They were married for 56 years before he died in 2010.
I love this story, Deb! I met my husband during our sophomore year of college, and we were friends for a year before we started dating. We celebrated our 14th anniversary on Valentine’s Day.
I was too overwhelmed during college orientation to have even noticed a guy. Thanks for sharing, KImberly!
Friends to Lovers/The Boy Next Door. One of romance’s favorite tropes. I love hearing true stories!
I so admire people who hit the 50 year mark. That takes love, work and commitment! Joe and I have several years (12 to be exact) difference between our ages.
A Valentine’s Day wedding. How romantic!! At least he’ll never forget the date, LOL.
Deb, I loved your story. I met my husband right after he moved into the apartment complex where I lived. My roommate had met him at a friend’s apartment and brought him over to meet me. She invited him and his roommate to go to a birthday party we were attending at our former apartment complex.
I met my husband my sophomore year of college. My new roommate went to transfer orientation, came back to the room after it was finished, and said, “I’ve just been hanging out with the man you’re going to marry.” Needless to say I laughed at her. She’d known me for all of 5 hours and she could make that kind of prediction?!? Well… the joke was on me because 4 years later, I did indeed marry that man (my roomie had dated his best friend at the university they had both previously attended and this is how she knew him) and she wagged an “I told you so” finger and grin all the way down the aisle at our wedding haha!!
Loved this, Deb. Especially the fact that he didn’t like warm fruit! Peaches, no less. Made me laugh out loud (especially when I think of my core character in my series and his love of anything peach, warm or not). But I digress…as usual. I met Jim on a blind date, but it took me a while longer to realize he was the guy for me. But 27-1/2 years later, here we are. I love the part about writing in your diary, too. Wonder how many girls still do that? And thanks for sharing the photos. Blessings for many more years together with your hubby! :)
I met my husband through an online personal ad on Prodigy, going back to the days when they and AOL were the only ones on the internet. We will be married 18 years in June. YES the internet is that OLD. ;)
I was teaching Kindergarten and the 6th grade teacher introduced me to her pseudo son (his parents were both dead) so that he’d know someone in the Sunday School class and be more willing to go. Oh, she was also his 6th grade teacher many years before!
I met my hubby through my brother. They worked together and became friends outside of work as well. I was going through some very tough personal problems, and my brother told me that his friend was coming over to his house, and he thought I should meet him, because he was an awesome guy who was a Christian. I told my brother that I was not interested in a relationship and I couldn’t date a Christian. Well you know how God works, I met him and we connected like we had known each other our entire lives. The first thing he did was invite me to church and I accepted (thank you Jesus) the next thing I knew I had accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior! We dated for about a year and a half and were married in June of 2006. I thank God every day for bringing Steve into my life! God is good all the time! <3
Way back before it was popular, I put a want ad in a magazine that went to everyone in the northwest who belonged to an electric cooperative. I received over 20 responses and narrowed it down from there. The guy who caught my eye scribbled a note and added an old picture. He lived about 4 hours away from me. We corresponded and went on a date. We were married a year later. Turns out I used to visit his great grandmother in the nursing home when I was very little. Our church would visit with the old folks there. We had lots of acquaintances and did not even know it.
Well, I have been married 31 years this coming June. I met my husband at church when I was 14. Didnt get serious until I was 16. Got married at 20. We grew up together and I knew he Loved the Lord.
Lovely post, Deb :) Thanks for sharing your real life story with us.
What a cute and awesome story, Deb. Don’t blame you for falling for the man :) My hubby and I were childhood friends – he was the only one out of his brother’s and mine that would allow me up in their treehouse. I’m sure I’ll share my story on Inspy sometime in the future.