Local Love: My Grandparents' Sweet Love Story

In honor of Valentine’s Day, we asked Patch readers on Facebook to tell us their local love stories — how they met, where it all went down, and what’s kept them together. Here’s the captivating love story of Betty and Phil:

My grandmother, Betty, was born and raised just outside of London, England. One day when she was in her early twenties, a couple American G.I.'s asked her and her sister for directions to Piccadilly Circus. They were already going in that direction anyway, so they offered to walk with them. One of those soldiers was named Phil, my grandfather. Betty was none too impressed by Phil, but he managed to weasel out of her sister where Betty worked, so he could see her again. Sure enough, as my grandmother left the light bulb factory at the end of the workday (in a sea of identically-dressed English women), a lone American soldier sat coolly on a wall, inwardly panicking, as he couldn't pick out which young woman was Betty. Her friends made a big to-do about the soldier, and ultimately Phil figured out who Betty was.

A date or two later, Betty invited Phil for dinner over at her parents' house. They maybe saw each other a few more times, tops, before he had to return to the U.S. They communicated by letter for several months afterward, sometimes using a simple code (as the mail was being searched) to signal whether he would be able to make it back to England.

He never did. He begged her in letter after letter to move to America and to come marry him. She, not surprisingly, insisted that she could not, over and over. He didn't let up, though, and eventually she bought a ticket on the Queen Elizabeth II ship to the U.S. In the days leading up to the journey, however, her parents and sisters would cry every time they looked at her, knowing they may not see her for years, or ever again. Once again, she decided she couldn't go.

.....Until later on, when there was a sudden, last-minute, discounted ticket available. She took the plunge and left her home to marry a foreigner she had met less than a handful of times. Even at 94 years old, she never forgot the sight of her family crying and waving from the harbor.

After some hiccups, she met up with Phil in New York City and made their way to Detroit, where they started their family of six children, including two sets of twins. Their loving marriage lasted 68 years, until Phil died a couple years ago. After she learned how to be strong, independent, and happy on her own, she finally passed in her sleep 2016, after a fabulous day of getting her hair and makeup done, church with her girlfriends, and winning bingo.

(Submitted by Kristin)

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