Ms. Werner, who lives in Stamford, Conn., and Mr. Morris, who lives in Joppa, Md., became serious very quickly, but she had to work in New York, a city that made Mr. Morris uncomfortable. The thought of either of them relocating was a non-starter.
“I thought the relationship was over,” she said. “But after three months of not seeing each other, he sent me a huge bouquet of flowers with a note that read, ‘If this is all you can give — texting every morning, speaking with each other every night, going on two weeklong yearly vacations, and spending around six weekends together — I’ll take it.’ He said he would rather have me in his life long-distance then not have me in his life at all.”
“I thank God and United Airlines for the start of an amazing relationship,” Ms. Werner said. “If I hadn’t gotten on that flight and paid for extra legroom, if he hadn’t traded seats with his brother, we would never have met.”
It started on a cruise dance floor
It was July 2005 when Michele Natola, 18, was on a cruise from Boston to Bermuda with her best friends after their high school graduation. Steve O’Connell, 18, was also aboard.
The two met the first night on the dance floor. “He was a dancing machine, going a mile a minute,” said Ms. Natola. “Wearing shorts, tube socks up to his knees, sandals and a fedora, my first impression was that he was crazy and I was not interested. I pulled my friend Amanda over to ‘save me.’”
“Despite my initial reaction, every night on the dance floor I would gravitate toward him,” she continued. After some conversations, she discovered that “he had spent most of his childhood summers at a campground that was only two minutes away from where her family lived in Plymouth. We had been less than a mile from each other every summer for the past 10 years.”
She gave him her number on the final night of the cruise. “At that point, I realized that I wouldn’t mind getting to know this crazy guy once we were off the boat — it was worth a try,” she said.
