Our next submission for our We Love love contest is from Rri who wrote in to tell us about her and Ric's love story starting off with how they met:
"We aren’t a young love story. We’re a story of what can happen when you just let life unfold FOR you, look for the good in others and keep believing, at any age. Ric and I became acquainted on Twitter, when Twitter was still Twitter, not X. We watched one another’s tweets for a few months in the fall of 2018. We were both in our 40’s, both single, but had never met. Ric knew I sang at Bronco games, and that was about it. Neither of us were looking for a partner, especially after each having devastating heartbreaks in our lives that year. Looking back, I think at first, we just entertained each other with how funny we both think we are. (I’m still the funniest, but he’s pretty close!) We began some humorous, friendly exchanges on Twitter around the topic of movies, music, sports, and navigating a new way of life. One evening, I was feeling particularly sad, and Ric saw my tweet about realizing it had been a really rough year, personally. He reached out in a direct message for the first time, saying he could relate – and if I ever needed to talk, he’d be there, and if I wasn’t comfortable with that, he totally understood. I marveled at his gentlemanly message for about half a minute, before I replied: “Absolutely ok with that. Beers sometime?” I think my immediate reply sort of shocked us both. But I just thought, if I was going to be friends with this guy who was near my age, and we were both living in Swift Current, both love music and sports, we should meet in person for a few laughs to lighten life up a little. So, we decided to meet for a beverage at Houston’s lounge a few days later. It was the most effortless, fun, engaging friendship that emerged, but also a definite spark – there was a whole lot of flirting – to this day, we still joke that the other flirted more, but I guess you could say, we were both “Twitterpated”. Later, as we stood by our vehicles in Houston’s parking lot saying goodnight, Ric asked me out on an official first date, with a plan of when and where. I couldn’t believe they still made men like this, the kind you read about but never meet, and I happily agreed. I remember driving out of that parking lot afterward, alone in my car, yelling YESSSSS!!! There are still gentlemen in the world. He picked me up a week later for a movie date and we saw “A Star is Born” at Cinema Twin. It sounds so cheesy, but I felt like a teenager when he (finally) reached for my hand. We’ve been together ever since. We have so many screenshots of our first conversations, and so many songs that we’ve shared with one another that are the soundtrack to our movie-worthy love story. We shared our interests – mine being mostly music, and his being his beloved Saskatchewan Roughriders. He took me to my first Rider game a week after our first date, and now I’m a lifelong fan. We’ve been to so many concerts together already, ranging from Rolling Stones in New York to Miranda Lambert in Vegas. We took our dear sweet time in our courtship. We didn’t rush our children who had all been through a lot already, and like all good things – it’s been worth the wait. Our blended family from age 11 to 38 fully support us, and we provide the peaceful home that they’ve always deserved. We were married one sunny day in August of 2022 on the farm where he grew up near Pennant, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the crowd when the somewhat silver-haired bride sang “I’ve loved you for A Thousand Years”, walking up the aisle to her distinguished groom. What is especially beautiful about this story is no matter how much pain we had each been through in our respective pasts, neither of us were searching for someone to complete us anymore. We were healing, separately. We were ok with letting love find us, instead of searching for it. It’s the old cliché; it will happen when you’re not looking for it – and here’s the key – it’s because you’re finally surrendered. What is for you, will find you. Even on Twitter. In all our texts, and to this day when we say goodnight, Ric says “I’ll find you in the morning.” And I say, “Find me always.”
Among the things Rri loves about Ric is his useless sports trivia knowledge as she explains:
"Ric is the second funniest person I know; he is kind, wildly intelligent, an absolute gentleman, an outgoing, relentlessly hardworking, engaging person, who carries a generous helping of somewhat useless sports trivia. He is a safe space for me and all five of our children and three grandchildren, and though he says he bleeds green, his heart is pure gold."
Thanks Rri for sharing your incredible love story with us.
If you would like to share your love story you have until the end of the day tomorrow (February 10th) to head over to the We Love love page and enter to win a beautiful Forever Tribute Collection Rounded Beaded Pendant worth almost $3000.