Keeping with tradition for our Valentine’s Day issue, The Tribune asked local couples to share stories of how they met.
Here are their responses in their words.
Benjamin and Jewels Everage
Benjamin and Jewels Everage
Submitted photo
We knew each other in middle school being a year apart but never talked. We didn’t officially meet each other until 2017. We both got a job in high school working at Walmart in Seymour. We both had the same orientation where we were introduced before beginning to work together. September of 2022, we will have been together for five years with two of those being married.
William and Kristy Betz
William and Kristy Betz
Submitted photo
My husband, William Betz, and I met in 2002. He was visiting his brothers, and I was over visiting with my sister. I played hard to get at first, and in April of 2004, we got together. He is my best friend, my soulmate. William is my everything.
Dakota Mullins and Holli Brooks
Dakota Mullins and Holli Brooks
Submitted photo
We met at a high school basketball game when I was 14 and he was 15. We just celebrated our 10 years together on Dec. 16. We had our first son, Karter, in 2017, our second son, Kowen, in 2019 and our third son, Kooper, in 2020. We just bought our first home in July 2021. We can’t wait to spend many more years together.
Daron Fleshman and Michelle Elkins
Michelle Elkins and Daron Fleshman
Submitted photo
Daron and I have known each other for years. We went to school together. He is a few years older than I am, so he was a couple of grades ahead of me. I dated his friend and he dated mine, so we knew each other and even hung out a few times. Neither one of us was ever interested in the other romantically. In fact, we both said we would never date each other. Daron thought I was very annoying and “too hyper.”
Fast forward to 2015, we both are single, and I saw him commenting on a mutual friend’s Facebook page. Naturally, I stalked his page, and I thought he was very good looking.
I sent him a friend request, and we started flirting a little. He gave me his phone number, and we began texting. I lived in an apartment in Indianapolis where I could see the interstate from my balcony. He would drive by and blow the horn on the semi, and I could hear it.
I asked him if he would like to go out sometime. We had planned to meet in Seymour at Brewskies. I was already there when he sent a text saying he wasn’t going to make it. I was very disappointed and decided to just go home. I got up from my seat, turned around and there he was. He was just teasing me about not coming.
We had a great first date, and the rest is history. We have been together just over six years, and it will be six years this Valentine’s Day that he officially asked me to be his girlfriend. He bought a giant teddy bear and wrote on the paws “Will you be my girlfriend?” I still have that bear.
Gregory and Katherine Jolly
Gregory and Katherine Jolly
Submitted photo
I met my husband when he got lost in Jennings County looking for another girl. He came up the wrong driveway, and I was sitting on my porch swing. He asked me if he was in the right place. I said, “Maybe.” Greg stayed and came back every day to see me. We got married a year later on Sept. 12, 2020.
Aaron and Becky Shelton
Becky and Aaron Shelton
Submitted photo
I met my now husband, Aaron Shelton, online through a dating site, Plenty of Fish, on May 5, 2019. We actually met the very same day we started chatting. I got off work that evening and drove from Scottsburg to Seymour where he lived and met him at his house.
Yes, I was nervous. It was love at first sight. He was very romantic. He danced with me in his kitchen, and I had never danced before. We talked for a while, then went out for a drink and we’ve been together ever since.
We got married two years later. We’ll be celebrating our first wedding anniversary on May 5, 2022. He’s the love of my life, my soulmate.
Steven and Felicity Watson
June 7, 2008, was the first official date that my husband and I had. He was living in Seymour, and I was living in Greenwood. I recently went back to college and my 6-month-old son and I were living with my parents. He had been working at his job for many years and was living with his parents, helping them out financially.
We had met on an online dating site about a month before and had been talking and texting, video calls, etc. We planned to meet up at the local Starbucks in Greenwood, which was close to my home.
Usually, you hope for a nice day to have your date on, but it had started to rain that morning. He showed up with a rose, my favorite color, too.
We decide to get some food and go to the local park and sat under the pavilion, which was atop a hill that overlooked three ball diamonds. By the time we got there, everything was really wet. The ball diamonds were underwater and looked like a large lake. A local paper photographer even showed up to take some photos of the flooding.
Afterwards, we decided to drive around in his Chevy Silverado and see how much flooding there was and see how ridiculous other drivers were being trying to drive through high water areas. We ended up going to my church for a small service and then to dinner. This date had turned into an all-day thing before we knew it.
Around 8 p.m., he received calls and texts from his family saying that Interstate 65 and U.S. 31 were closed due to the rain. He had no way to get back home, so I called my parents and explained. They invited him to stay the night, so he came home with me and met my parents. We stayed up talking and watching the news about the flooding and who was affected.
The next morning, our first date was going on 23 hours long. He woke up and met my son that morning. He fed my son his morning bottle and has been “dad” ever since. We just celebrated our 13th year of marriage.
Randy and Mary Burgmeier
Submitted photo
After 35 years married to my high school sweetheart and losing him to cancer, I decided to do the online dating site. I saw this guy whose name was Burg, and I saw he had some ties to Hayden. My grandmother lived in Hayden and worked at the school with a Burgmeier, so I reached out. I told him “I bet I know your last name.” We talked, and six weeks later, we were married. I tell everyone my angel in heaven sent him to me because he is the best husband, dad and stepdad and papaw ever. Love you, Randy E. Burgmeier!
Clinton and Kaela Singer
Submitted photo
Clinton and I met in the summer of 2013. I had been volunteering in the 4-H building at the Jackson County Fair when he made an appearance there. We just started talking and walked around for the rest of the day. We had actually met each other in our freshman year of high school but had never spoken to each other.
We went to the races on Thursday night and the Clayton Anderson concert on that Friday night together. Since then, we have been stuck at the hip. We were engaged in March 2018 and married in August 2019. We just welcomed our first little babe, Lena Mae, into this world in August 2021. Just a couple of high school sweethearts living out their happily ever after.