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As the pink and red decorations go up, couples throughout the Imperial Valley prepare to commemorate the day of love.
Valentine’s Day is Tuesday, and people throughout the county will be sending flowers, giving candy and having dinner to celebrate one of the biggest card-giving holidays of the year.
Couples with unique stories think back on how fate brought them together, as well as explain how they have stayed together so long.
Love at first type
The third time Randy and Gaby Holiman met in person they were getting married.
The couple who now live south of Seeley had to really get to know each other on their honeymoon, Gaby said. Now they’re still learning about each other after almost 10 years of being married, after spending 24 hours a day, seven days a week together and after raising two children. They’re still best friends.
“When we were trying to find ourselves; we found each other,” she said.
The couple did something unheard of in 2001. They met online.
The two first talked in a chat room for people older than 30. Gaby was dealing with losing her fiancé and best friend in a motorcycle accident and her biological clock was ticking. Randy was divorced and disabled from a car accident.
They continued on as friends through e-mails and phone calls. Then they met in person for the first time when Gaby traveled from her home in Mexico City to San Diego and made a stop in Westmorland, where Randy lived.
They had been talking for months, and toward the end of the trip Randy proposed. Gaby wasn’t sure just yet, but didn’t say no. A few months later they met up again, this time in Mexico for Gaby’s birthday.
He proposed in front of her family, and she said yes.
“It was just an adventure,” she said.
Meeting online is an opportunity that can change lives, Gaby said. It turned out so good, and as long as people use it the right way, going online can be a great tool to meet people.
“Overall, I’d do it again. I’d do it in a heartbeat,” Gaby said.
“Me too,” Randy said.
Teaching love
Though they both attended San Diego State University, Dennis and Carol Haworth didn’t meet until they both came to Imperial County in 1969.
The two were hired at Central Union High School; him teaching math, then biology, and her teaching home economics. At the time, first-year teachers at the El Centro school would have lunch together daily, but that didn’t mean it was love at first sight for the couple.
Valentine’s Day is Tuesday, and people throughout the county will be sending flowers, giving candy and having dinner to celebrate one of the biggest card-giving holidays of the year.
Couples with unique stories think back on how fate brought them together, as well as explain how they have stayed together so long.
Love at first type
The third time Randy and Gaby Holiman met in person they were getting married.
The couple who now live south of Seeley had to really get to know each other on their honeymoon, Gaby said. Now they’re still learning about each other after almost 10 years of being married, after spending 24 hours a day, seven days a week together and after raising two children. They’re still best friends.
“When we were trying to find ourselves; we found each other,” she said.
The couple did something unheard of in 2001. They met online.
The two first talked in a chat room for people older than 30. Gaby was dealing with losing her fiancé and best friend in a motorcycle accident and her biological clock was ticking. Randy was divorced and disabled from a car accident.
They continued on as friends through e-mails and phone calls. Then they met in person for the first time when Gaby traveled from her home in Mexico City to San Diego and made a stop in Westmorland, where Randy lived.
They had been talking for months, and toward the end of the trip Randy proposed. Gaby wasn’t sure just yet, but didn’t say no. A few months later they met up again, this time in Mexico for Gaby’s birthday.
He proposed in front of her family, and she said yes.
“It was just an adventure,” she said.
Meeting online is an opportunity that can change lives, Gaby said. It turned out so good, and as long as people use it the right way, going online can be a great tool to meet people.
“Overall, I’d do it again. I’d do it in a heartbeat,” Gaby said.
“Me too,” Randy said.
Teaching love
Though they both attended San Diego State University, Dennis and Carol Haworth didn’t meet until they both came to Imperial County in 1969.
The two were hired at Central Union High School; him teaching math, then biology, and her teaching home economics. At the time, first-year teachers at the El Centro school would have lunch together daily, but that didn’t mean it was love at first sight for the couple.
