These three South Valley couples have interesting stories of how
they fell in love
it’s always amazing to trace the series of events that brings together two people, particularly when those two end up getting married and living happily ever after.
Freak accidents, twists of fate and other coincidences are at the heart of many relationships. As unlikely as it may have been for two people’s paths to cross, life has a way of working things out – and it often ends up making for a great story.
We asked South Valley residents to tell us how they met the loves of their lives, and we ended up with some interesting tales.
David and Valerie Vanni, Gilroy
David was on a plane, coming home after a convention, and he was happy to have caught an earlier flight than he’d originally planned.
Valerie was on her way to California for business. Someone else was supposed to be going, but two days before the trip that person backed out, and Valerie was filling in. She ended up sitting in a window seat next to an open middle seat. David was in the aisle seat.
“The thing that brought my attention to her was this bright red raincoat she had on,” David said. “I thought, ‘I have four hours to sit on this airplane, and I might as well have fun.’ She looked like a nice lady, so I thought I’d talk to her. So I started to pester her.”
Valerie was reading a book, and she said that even though she really wanted to read her book, David seemed like a nice guy and she didn’t want to hurt his feelings.
“We just started talking, and it was amazing how fast the flight went,” she remembered. “The conversation just flowed. We talked about family and about our work, as I recall.”
After that first flight, David got Valerie’s business card, and their long-distance relationship began. Within months, David proposed.
“I thought she was great, and I knew I loved her,” David said. “I knew I wanted to be with her, so we were on the Queen Mary and I asked her to be my wife.”
David and Valerie will be married 16 years in December.
“David will buy a Lottery ticket every now and then,” Valerie said. “But I tell him, ‘I don’t know why you play the Lotto – we already won.’ ”
Lois and Ralph Maggio,
Morgan Hill
Ralph was stationed at a Naval base in Corpus Christi, Texas, which happened to be Lois’ hometown. It was June of 1942, and the jitterbug, fox trot and Texas two-step were the hot new dances everyone was doing at the local honky-tonk nightclub. Lois was there with some family friends, and she wanted to dance.
“I had noticed a couple sitting together at a nearby table with a single, handsome young sailor sitting across from them,” Lois said. “He was striking. And he didn’t have a girl beside him.”
One of the friends Lois was with called over to the sailor, Ralph, asking him if he wanted to dance, indicating Lois’ single status.
“The only reason I was there alone was because I’d been stood up by a girl I was supposed to meet,” Ralph said. “She was pretty and alone, so I thought I’d dance with her.”
They dated for a while after that, but then Ralph was transferred to various bases around the country. They kept in touch through letters and postcards for several years, but never saw each other in that time. In the summer of 1946, Ralph made his way back to Corpus Christi after a quick stop in New York to see his mother and to buy a ring.
“I was concerned she had no idea what she was getting into, marrying a career Navy man,” Ralph said. “She was pretty strong-headed and didn’t like being told she had to do certain things a Navy wife has to do. But she said she didn’t care. She said she would be happy living in a shack as long as she was with me.”
Lois, who will be 80 next week, and Ralph, 83, have been married for almost 60 years.
“We have survived illnesses and losses, but through it all we have been happy together,” Lois said. “And we have been blessed.”
Susan Shapiro and Gary Cates, Gilroy
Susan went to school and got a degree in constitutional and criminal law in the hopes of being a field investigator for a government agency. Gary didn’t have a degree but had earned an excellent reputation as an experienced field investigator and bounty hunter.
Though they were doing similar work, their paths never crossed until the infamous commune burning in 1993 in Waco, Texas, indirectly brought them together.
“I was going to get a job with the (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms),” Susan said. “I had gone through the whole interview process, and I was on the verge of getting hired when Waco happened. The government ordered an investigation into the ATF, and that led to a hiring freeze, so I was out of a job. I ended up working for a bail bond business.”
The company that hired Susan also contracted Gary to do work for them. Susan and Gary often found themselves on stakeouts together and hunting down people who had skipped out on their bail, failing to appear in court.
“We would always have these sort of arguments over the right way to do things,” Susan remembered. “He would want to go running right in, and I would say, ‘Whoa, slow down, Rambo.’ Then he would tell me that while I was reading a textbook about how to do my job, he would go actually do the job. It was fun, though, and the disagreements were always good-natured.”
When Gary eventually asked Susan out on a date, she thought he was trying to play a joke on her. But she agreed to meet him for dinner, and they’ve been together ever since.
“I married my best friend,” Susan said. “We have two beautiful daughters, and we’re in business together now. Talk about knowing your partner has your back – whenever we’re out after criminals, Gary and I know we have nothing to worry about. There’s no way either of us would ever let anything bad happen to the other one.”
