Pa was a missionary. Twas his job to visit rural areas of third world countries and convince the people their beliefs were wrong. One day some 30 years ago, he ran into a pretty young girl who was about half his age and married her. Had 5 kids with her too. So that’s how pa met ma. He converted her. Yes, my parents are damn religious. People often wonder what in the unholy hell happened to me. 
It was 1970something…My Mom was painting Christmas decorations on the windows of a bowling alley, marveling at the exotic life of an artist. My Dad was part of a crew running telephone lines up the block, marveling at the exotic ass of an artist, as she stood on a ladder painting Christmas decorations on the windows of a bowling alley. Some members of Dad’s crew were a bit more crude in their appreciation of Mom’s ass than would be considered tastefull. My Dad approached, apologized for the rude behavior, and asked if she’d like to join him for a cup of coffee.
Mom was 19 when she came over from Finland to visit relatives in Quincy, Mass. WW2 started so she had to stay a little longer than she expected. She got engaged to Frank. But Frank thought she needed to grow up. So he moved to Florida, still engaged. Mom then happened to meet the son of a preacherman (aka Dad) at a dance at the Old Finn Hall. He liked her the way she was just fine, Frank became history, and it took Mom 40 years to get back to Finland for a visit (a year after Dad died).
One of my favorite photos is a pre-marriage picture that Dad snapped of her and sent to his parents with “Isn’t she sweet!” written on the bottom.
My dad and his friends moved up to Boston from North Carolina, and he took a job delivering furniture. My mom, having lived in Boston her whole life, was the dispatcher, I guess you could call it that.
They had talked so much on the phone, but they never met in person until my dad asked my mom out for coffee. That was 28 years ago.
My mother was a schoolteacher. She was on her way to school and was in a car accident and crushed both legs and had to have a foot re-attached. One of her girlfriends came to visit her in the hospital and dragged her boyfriend along. As they were leaving, the boyfriend asked if he could bring her anything. She said magazines would be nice, so the next day he brought copies of “Workbench” (A woodworking magazine) and “Field and Stream”. When she got out, she gave him copies of “Redbook” and “Ladies Home Journal”. For their first date they went to see the movie “Quo Vadis” (being good Catholic kids). They married shortly thereafter and (again, being good Catholic kids) produced 7 kids in 6 years (two sets of twins). They were married for just under 50 years, until my father died of lung cancer.
StG