The moment I knew it was love

Five couples share their stories and remember the moment that they realised it was the real deal. Interviews by Camilla Chafer

Some of us wait a lifetime to fall in love and for a lucky few, the moment they realised it was love can be recalled in an instant.

 

Showing her feelings
Elisa, 33, feared she might have scared Matt, 34, away when she first told him that she loved him. 'We were in the pub when I told him and Matt was quite standoffish. I thought I had probably opened my heart too soon and we ended up arguing. I walked off and Matt followed me all the way home. Six months later he asked me to marry him.'

 

Elisa says she can't remember a time when she didn't love Matt. 'I knew quite soon that we were meant for each other, like soul mates. I always remember just loving him.' Sixteen years and one baby, Ruby, later, Elisa and Matt are still happily married.

 

Love in a letter
Fate brought Jo, 33, and Kevin, 37, together. Kevin was a soldier stationed in the Gulf when Jo saw an advert for penpals and decided to write. It was only by chance that Kevin got Jo's letter. 'His friend had loads of letters, one of them being mine. Kevin pinched my letter and wrote to me. We wrote for a year and spoke on the telephone,' recalls Jo, until they decided to meet up one weekend in Wales. 'It was very romantic,' says Jo, 'and when he went back to Scotland nine days later we both knew it was love.'

 

Starting on the side
When Johanna, 32, met Matthew, 28, she was living with someone else and guilt ridden at the thought of an affair. 'Our illicit affair didn't last very long because we knew from early on that it was something pretty serious and I hated having an affair,' says Johanna. 'I snuck off to see Matthew for a weekend just a couple of weeks after we'd first started the whole thing. I remember very clearly sitting by the sea in the evening. It was very windy and dramatic. Matthew said to me, 'I don't want to pressure you to leave your boyfriend but I want you to know that however long it takes, I'll wait'.

 

'It was quite a moment - and I remember thinking, "this is it. I love this boy".' Johanna ended her relationship the next day and has been married to Matthew for eight years and they now have a son, Eliott.

 

Dancing queen
Even though Katie was only 14 when she met David, she knew it couldn't be anything but love. 'I met David at my sister's 18th birthday party,' says Katie, 'and he was one of her friends. But as soon as David had drunk enough to pluck up the courage to ask me to dance – that was it. I was smitten.

 

'It was Christmas Eve, over a month later, before we got together again. At midnight, as David was about to leave, he kissed me. I still class it as my first real kiss. We were inseparable after our first couple of "dates" and we both knew we were in it for the long term. We got engaged when I was 18, and married a year later in 1994. We have been together 16 years now, married for 11, and are still very much in love with two beautiful children to show for it.'

 

Flatmate fix-up
Meeting your future husband in your living room may seem too good to be true but that's exactly what happened when Christine, 52, met her future husband, Chris. The two lived near each other but had never met until Christine's lodger, Andy, set them up. 'Andy had known Chris for years and thought I'd like him. He invited Chris round for a cup of tea one afternoon and then made sure he was out, conveniently leaving me to do the talking! Chris realised it was a set-up but I had been clueless,' laughs Christine.

 

'It was something that grew over time from friendship to something deeper. We were sitting on the patio one summer's day having lunch together and chatting, when it hit me: "This is it, I Iove him!"'

 

Read more great Valentines' ideas in our Love over 40 special, see all features here