Ask anyone who was found "the one," and they can probably tell you the exact moment they fell for them. We don't plan on these moments, instead, they seem to happen. Fate works that way.
A Reddit thread recently asked people to share the moment they know their significant other was "the one" instead of just another fling that would be forgotten in time. We have selected some of the best stories from the bunch and compiled them into a heartwarming, sometimes insane list of moments. All posts have been edited for clarity.
She Knew He Was “The One” After This
“I had swine flu, so my boyfriend got the vaccine as soon as I had the first symptoms, took off work, and then took care of me while I fought it for nine days. He was visiting his mom and I called him and described my symptoms and told him to get the vaccine with his mom that Tuesday. He took a train home to me on Friday after I woke up feeling terrible and unable to do anything for myself. We knew the vaccine would need more than three days to protect him from me, but he refused to stay away any longer.
For nine days, I would wake up mid-projectile vomiting every couple of hours, unable to control it or aim it, getting it everywhere, and he cleaned me and everything else, he got in with me to help me shower, he kept my spirits up and made sure I choked down some food despite being nauseous, and he called my bosses to let them know I was sick.
And he still found me attractive after all of it. I’ll never, ever let him go. It was pure luck that he didn’t get swine flu, and we understood that.”
Love Comes At The Weirdest Times
“I had been in a long distance relationship with my significant other for a couple of years. It was at a point in the relationship where I knew I had to make a decision, and soon, whether or not to move across the country to live with her. Long distance relationships simply can’t last for years, no matter how strong.
It wasn’t going to be an easy decision, though…it meant leaving a job I loved, moving far away from close friends I had grown up with, my family, and pretty much everything that I knew.
Well, one evening we were talking on the phone, and she was telling me about her jury duty that day, where the lawyers asked prospective jurors various questions to determine who they wanted to pick for the case.
One of the questions they asked her was, ‘What is the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do?’ She didn’t want to tell me her answer and tried to change the subject, but I insisted.
Finally, she told me her answer: ‘Living apart from the person I’m in love with.’
I knew right then what my decision was and within a few months, we were living together. Just the mental image I have of her standing up in a court house and saying that…that’s like something out of a movie. That’s when I knew.”
She Didn’t Know How Much She Needed Him Until This Moment
“A few months ago, we had the misfortune of encountering the Arizona Mental Health system. Long and short of it goes: he was committed involuntarily and due to unfair circumstances, was held for far longer than anyone should ever have to. There was no violence involved, no substance abuse, nothing shady — it was just a badly timed, unfortunate event.
It was a fairly modern facility, which is almost worse than the alternative. If the place had been filthy and run down, I would understand, maybe. But people were polite, and helpful, and it made it that much harder to hate them all for being around him for 10 hours a day instead of only during visiting hours. I had a lot of pent-up resentment in me. It drowned everything out. I just wanted him home.
The second I got past the front lobby, the desk, the metal detectors, self-locking doors, the time-delayed elevator, the two emts with a gurney, the hallway and doorbell and third set of doors, he was there. He was in his room, looking maybe a little tired and unshaven, but otherwise okay. Happy, maybe, to see us.
I knew in that moment that I could never let him go.
We’re planning to get married, but we don’t really know when. That’s fine. We have other things to focus on for the moment.”
“There, We Match Now”
“Back when my husband and I were still dating, we went to a local fair. The true requirement for any fair outing is the giant corn dog which you slather with mustard. So as we were getting our corn dogs and adding condiments, I walked over to the mustard pump. As I pressed down on the pump, nothing happened, so after checking to make sure it was not clogged, I pressed again. Mustard went everywhere. All over my favorite shirt, my jeans, my shoes, in my hair. Oddly enough, mustard did not end up on the corn dog.
I turned to my boyfriend and was just downtrodden. Stupid mustard pump had ruined my day and I just needed him to tell me it was ok and not to worry. He took one look at me, gave me a little smile and dunked his corn dog into his mustard. He then wiped the mustard across the front of his shirt and said, ‘There, we match now.’
We’ve been happily married for five years now, I honestly don’t know what I’d do without him. He’s an absolutely great man and I’m so glad I get to share my life with him.”
Who Knew Salmonella Could Be A Good Thing?
“My (now) fiancé and I were at a party, we knew each other a little but not very much. I was dating someone else at the time. Well, I hadn’t been feeling too hot before the ex and I got to the party and matters didn’t improve. I tried to ignore it, but as I found out later…salmonella is very hard to ignore.
My ex thought I was faking it and decided to just get wasted instead of take care of me. I found a couch out of the way and tried not to puke over everything. I tried to sleep but at about 7 am I couldn’t take it anymore. I attempted to wake up my ex, who again told me to deal with it. I then woke up my now fiancé and asked if he could take me to the ER. He didn’t even hesitate and soon I was now trying not to puke in his car.
We got to the ER and I told him that he could go, that I would take the bus home after I was done. He refused to leave me there by myself so we started talking. It took two hours for them to take me to a room where I was given some morphine and asked some questions about…well stuff an acquaintance normally would never want to hear.
My fiancé stuck around for the questions and me hallucinating on the medication. We talked in between the doctor coming in and I could not figure out why this awesome guy was taking the time to help me. My ex didn’t show up to the ER until we were leaving… nine hours later. I found a place to live and broke up with the ex soon after. My fiancé helped me move out and he got up the guts to ask me out a month later.
We get married in two months and I have salmonella to thank.”
Not Even The PTSD Was Enough To Scare Her Off
“I’m an Iraq veteran and have a case of PTSD. It’s usually unnoticeable, but sometimes when I get really wasted, it can get really bad.
So after Iraq, I was deployed to Korea by the army. It hadn’t been long since I met my then girlfriend, and we were getting to know each other. In Korea, that means drinking. Yes, in the USA also, but even more so in Korea.
One time, I had one too many, and my mind went blank for a second, and when my girlfriend tried to get my attention, I PSTD reacted, hitting her in the face. I don’t remember this moment, but apparently I didn’t black out for very long because I remember her yelling at me that I’d hit her, and me apologizing, saying I don’t remember it happening, and that I didn’t mean it.
We had been dating about a week at that point. What would any girl do? She just upped and walked away, understandably. I got really upset, at both my condition and myself, and drank some more. But not five minutes later, my girlfriend came back to take care of me. I was GONE by this point, and when she came back, I was ranting and crying about how sorry I was and about the things that happened over there.
She, a woman I met one to two weeks before that, stuck with me the entire night, talking me through all my craziness, and got me home.
This is item one in a long list events that made me wife her.”
Sometimes You Need Someone To Kill Wasps For You
“All my life, I’ve had a paralyzing phobia of bugs, especially wasps. Evil things. It’s a terrible phobia. I remember once skipping an entire day of classes in college because a wasp was hanging out in the hallway outside my room in the dorms. I called everyone I knew to help me, but nobody could.
A few years later, I was managing an adult video store in midtown. I had just started going out with a pretty awesome guy. He lived about a mile away from the store, maybe a bit more. And, I noticed there was a wasp flying around in the store. I lost my head and grabbed the phone and ran to the back room and locked the bathroom door.
I called my boyfriend and started gibbering like a frightened 7-year-old girl, instead of the 23-year-old man that I actually was. He calmed me down enough, found out what was wrong, and hung up. Next thing I knew, he ran to the store, killed the evil wasp, and swept the entire store for further offenders. He also checked outside for nests. Finally, he reported to me that all was clear.
The fact is, he did this for me ALL the time. Sometimes more than once per day. And he never complained, never made me feel bad about him being inconvenienced, and never made me feel silly or ashamed about my phobia. He just rescued me. Over and over and over.
Fourteen years later, he STILL rescues me from all sorts of threats, problems, and briar patches. He’s an awesome guy. It’s funny. If we’re walking down the sidewalk and I see a wasp, I’ll actually gasp and close my eyes. He’ll grab my arm and walk me until we’re past it. I’m pathetic, I know…”
This Happened On Their Second Date?
“Right when we started dating, I found out my mom was diagnosed with dementia. She disappeared and no one in my family knew where she was. I decided that my planned second date would still be ok.
As I got to her apartment, it hit me that my mom, my intelligent, witty funny mom, was never going to be the same, and that change for the worse was coming. My date opened up the door, and right away saw that I was troubled and invited me in. I lost it. Not like silent tears either. Giant, gasping for air, sort of sobbing. In her arms, on our SECOND date.
I looked up, terrified that she would think I was a chump, or crazy. I hadn’t even explained what was bothering me yet. I looked up and she showed me the most beautiful smile I have ever seen. It was like an angel smiling at me as I was sobbing like a baby.
Right then, I knew. I knew it would somehow all be ok. My mom, life, everything. I knew in my heart that this was the one. No surprise, no ‘wow’ moment, it was just simple fact.”
Love In The Hospital
“Childbirth is one of the most disgusting events in a woman’s life. After 30 hours of labor, I ended up having a c-section per the doctor’s advice.
My husband was by me the entire time as stranger after stranger stuck their fingers inside me, during every contraction, and was stroking my head as they cut me open.
He said that when they let him look over the blue sheet to watch our son come out, he saw the doctor push with all his weight onto my stomach, triggering a gush of blood and a purple and white alien baby to pop out of the hole in my body.
Cut to the recovery room. I didn’t know this beforehand, but you have a ‘period’ for anywhere from one to four weeks after giving birth. I was bleeding, but I couldn’t get out of bed for about the first 24 hours. My wonderful husband helped the nurses change my bloody pads every few hours. He didn’t even bat an eye. THAT is what I call a real man.
To make things worse, these aren’t any ‘light flow’ pads we’re talking about. They are about two-feet long and are more like diapers.”
He Thought It Was Over But She Wouldn’t Give Up
“A long time ago, my girlfriend and I had a fight and didn’t see each other for almost two weeks. It was one of those fights where you don’t remember exactly what set it off, but it escalated enough to where we just stormed off, and didn’t talk to each other.
The two weeks apart were horrible. I missed her immensely, but my idiotic pride prevented me from calling her. That first weekend without her was completely miserable. During the second week, she actually called me to ask how I was doing. I said I was fine but I wasn’t. After some silence, she said that she thought I would call her sometime, and my moronic response was to ask, ‘Why?’ I could hear her tearing up, and then she hung up on me.
Again, my misguided pride kept getting the better of me. After a day, I decided to finally call her, and apologize. Only she wouldn’t pick up my calls. This went on for several days. I finally decided to just head over to her place and apologize in person. I was in the mindset that I completely messed things up, and if she didn’t want to get back together, then that was it.
I hopped on the subway and made my way to her apartment on Friday afternoon. It was raining pretty heavily that day, and I wasn’t feeling too good. It didn’t help that I wasn’t eating too well during that time period. It was about a three-mile walk from the subway station to her place, and I didn’t bring an umbrella with me. I told myself that I came this far so I might as well finish what I came to do.
When I got to her doorstep, I was completely soaked, and I knew that I had a fever. Halfway through the walk, I was sneezing and coughing like crazy. I knocked on her door, not even knowing if she was home. The door opened, and there she was. We just looked at each other for a while. I started my apology, but in between the coughing, sneezing, and heavy rainfall, it wasn’t going too well. I finally just blurted out that I missed her, but she replied with, ‘It didn’t seem that way.’
Well. That was it. It was over. I said that I was sorry, and started to walk away.
Not 10 seconds later, she ran outside and grabbed my arm. She dragged me back into her apartment, saying that I was in no condition to head back in the rain. When I got inside, I nearly passed out. The fever had gotten to me, and she put me in her bed to rest. Keep in mind this was Korea. College students don’t have large living areas, and her apartment was just a tiny room with a bed, a table for studying, a small gas burner for cooking, and a bathroom to the side. She gave me her only comfortable space for that entire weekend. Nursing and feeding me from one of the worst fevers I ever had. She slept on the ground with no additional blankets or pillows. She gave them all to me.
On Sunday, the fever finally broke. I was actually cognitive enough to speak to her, and asked why she did this even though I was completely awful to her. She said that she couldn’t just let me walk away like that. It would’ve been cruel, and she thought I wouldn’t make it to the train station without passing out in the middle of a rainstorm. She was probably right. We talked that entire day, and by the evening I was actually feeling well enough to head outside. We went to a local Korean BBQ place, and ate as much as the two of us could. I went home on Monday feeling better and called her that night to talk some more.
Two months later, I proposed to her. Eight years later, we’re still going strong.”
They Found A Way To Make It Work
“The fact that my girlfriend even wanted to go out with me is actually a real kicker.
We met our sophomore year of high school. At that time, I’d had two previous girlfriends, both of which ‘mysteriously’ dumped me a week or so into the relationship. I also had two really close guy friends, and still didn’t really talk to girls, except in a very gal-pally way.
The guys convinced me to go to a Halloween party based on the fact that Kristin (my girlfriend) was going to be there. I was fired up, ready to ask the girl out and finally get it going with her. I’d been crushing on her for the first two months of school and she’s a really incredible girl. The issue was that I still really didn’t talk to girls, but she fixed that by talking to me, following me around and putting up with my antics.
The night went great and we really hit it off. The next Monday, after school, she said that she was really happy that it wasn’t true. I looked up, sort of puzzled. Apparently, most of my school and my friends thought I was gay as a rainbow, and even most of Kristin’s friends told her not to go for it, because I was most definitely gay. She said that she’d prove them wrong, and she did!
I now have a lot of self confidence because of her, and even though we’ve only got a year of high school left, I know I’ll try to stay with her no matter where college takes us. She’s the reason why I am who I am today.”
No Matter What, Love Finds A Way
“We were in high school, and I wasn’t any kind of ‘cool,’ and in that social climate, attracting a girl that wasn’t desperate or scary was very difficult at best.
She managed to give away to her friend that she was interested in me, and through a ‘friend of a friend’ connection, she was around me to mention it. When I had my next class opportunity to speak to her, I introduced myself directly, and we took off in a conversation instantly, becoming very flirtatious and intense right away – and neither of us can remember the bulk of it, just that our eyes were locked and we didn’t look away the whole time.
I do remember it ending with me somehow getting to asking her about how often she ‘goes out,’ and she said, ‘I don’t have much of a social life.’
I replied, ‘Maybe I should do something about that!’
She quickly came back with ‘Maybe you should,’ smiling like the cat that ate the canary.
That’s when a mutual friend sitting in the space between our desks said ‘Oh my god!’ and I realized pretty much the whole class heard it all and was staring at us, jaws all dropped. She basically sought me out, no matter how ‘uncool’ others thought I was. Yep, she was special.
But then, young as we were, we were stupid, and let stupid social and home life situations separate us.
Around 25 years later, I was all set to move back to the same neck of the woods where a job opportunity existed in the company I worked for, basically the only such position left in the country. As a result of my situation, I got back in touch with her, and she was getting a divorce after years of an unhappy marriage. I’d never married.
We didn’t take long to feel like we’d been waiting to see each other the whole time. I was sure she would’ve forgotten me, and yet she had not. I never forgot her. We’ve been back together for just about four years now, and we’re cozy and enjoying life.
You don’t get a lot of second chances in life, but when you do, don’t waste it.”
She Wasn’t Willing To Let It Go
“There wasn’t a typical romantic moment, really, it was quite the opposite. My then-friend-with-benefits came to visit me while I was studying abroad, and I was just way too into the fun party scene to be ready to settle down with someone who had his life so together. I knew if we started dating, he would be serious endgame for me, and it scared me, so I broke things off on the day he flew home. He told me he needed me to keep out of his life for awhile, which I totally respected, so I didn’t contact him at all for a week.
It was the worst week of my life. Food tasted like nothing; I couldn’t get excited to go out or do any of the fun things I thought were what I wanted. So when he popped back up online and said ‘Hi,’ I begged for forgiveness and haven’t let go since. Been married almost a year, together for six. He’s the light of my life, and all those things that intimidated me about our life together have made him so kind, stable, and loving.
Parties end when the sun comes up, but a good person who loves you makes waking up the best part of your day.”
Her Boyfriend Jumped Into Action And Into Her Heart
“One night, I woke up and instantly knew I was going to throw up. I jumped out of bed and sprinted to the bathroom while heroically trying to hold my puke in until I got to the bathroom. No such luck, and I started Olympic-level spewing all over the bathroom floor. Unbeknownst to me, my boyfriend sprang out of bed and was chasing me to the bathroom trying to figure out what was wrong.
I’ll never forget looking up from my miserable crouch on the floor and seeing him round the corner into the bathroom. He slipped in the puke like he was a cartoon and the puke was a banana peal. Not willing to bask in the glory of this moment, I had to turn and continue puking in the toilet. My poor boyfriend had gone from a deep sleep to going up in a puddle of puke in mere seconds. As I was convulsing in a gremlin fashion, he quietly got up, went downstairs, got cleaning supplies, and took care of everything.
He ran me a bath, made sure I had water, and never once made it seem like he was doing anything remotely disgusting. He saw me at my literal worst and didn’t even bat an eye. That’s when I knew I always wanted him in my corner.
We are now married with a beautiful baby girl who pukes on us all the time. Love spews eternal.”
“We Fit Like A Glove”
“There was never an ‘aha’ moment for me. The realization came slowly, over many months. We both had a lot of growing to do when we first met. I decided I needed to marry him through a series of discoveries about his character.
First, I saw how he was so compassionate and patient when I was dealing with severe depression. Second, the night I told him I loved him for the first time, he held me closely and lovingly for half an hour as I struggled to get the words out. Third, I knew our values aligned in all the important ways… family, money, love, kids, religion, politics… we fit like a glove. The love making was always mind-blowing, too.
Eventually, after a year and a half of dating, all the pieces fell into place. I went from ‘Hey, this guy might be marriage material’ to ‘I need him to be mine for the rest of my life,’ and we were married a year and a half later.”