How We Met
I had a typical Swedish upbringing with my family. I was born in Linköping but moved to Stockholm when I was still a baby, and I had never been outside Europe at the time, though I knew a lot about America.
I met my husband for the first time when I was 14 years-old in 1975 and he was 2 weeks shy of turning 16. He is American and his father worked at the American Embassy in Stockholm. We were at a concert and I saw him looking at me. He finally walked about to me and introduced himself and we quickly connected. There was a bit of flirting going on despite the fact that I barely knew any English then but was able to get by.
In early 1976 he asked me out. Of course, I said yes and we went to IKEA on our first date! Because he’d just moved to Sweden a few months back, I gave him tours around Stockholm. Not long after our first date, we shared our first kiss and declared our love to each other after dancing together to ABBA and because of this it became one of “our” songs, and after 38 years of marriage next month, we have a whole playlist of “our songs!”
One night, our parents were having dinner together along with us, and my dad suddenly said, “If the two of you ever wish to be married, you have my blessing.”
“And definitely mine!” said my mom.
“And certainly ours!” said his parents. We were a bit taken aback because we were not even thinking about marriage then, but it certainly got us thinking about it. And the next day, to show that he really approved, my dad gave Paul, my future husband, my grandmother’s engagement ring, which she approved of as well, to propose to me with.
We both shared the love of God and we were both big fans of ABBA and we played the guitar, too! We loved singing and performing, which is what we did at the time.
In 1977 when I was 16, I was backstage with my fellow musician friends where Paul asked me to marry him! I didn’t hesitate to accept, and he put the ring on my finger and kissed me! It was so special of my grandmother to pass down the ring, as my grandfather loved my grandmother dearly until the moment he passed, and I knew despite how young I was that’s what a marriage was.
Despite our attraction to each other, we most certainly waited until marriage to do anything sexual. Before our marriage, we only kissed, hugged, and held hands, and that was it.
But now that our wedding day was approaching, we were getting excited. At church, we were hearing more and more about sex in marriage, and how we’re supposed to have regular sex often with our spouses, and not to “defraud one the other” as the Bible says. I was thinking to myself that I won’t have any trouble with that.
On the morning of our wedding in 1979, I woke up very excited. My bridesmaids helped me get ready, and I saw myself in that beautiful dress in the mirror. I was about to marry the man of my dreams.
So beautiful Mrs. Clara! I'm so happy for the both of you! Welcome to the family here! 🙂
I never get tired of this beautiful story, my dear cousin. I remember how beautiful it was at your wedding. You two are such a wonderful couple <3 God bless you always, darling
I am a huge romantic, and this had me smiling the whole time Clara. Thank you so much for sharing, and showing there is absolutely nothing wrong with meeting your Forever partner young and getting married young. I wish more people my generation would see that 🙂 Thank you 🙂 I really appreciated this.
Thank you, JAM777. If it weren't for Harper telling me about this wonderful site I wouldn't be here.
Thank you Harper, sweetie <3 I loved your wedding too. It also snowed then.I'm glad you say that, I always knew Paul & I were meant to be together. Praise God for everything
Thank you, upcoming author. I wish that was so as well. I was especially blessed because we were each other's first, and only love.
I did, too! I saw how you were with one another. I see the spark as much now as I did when you first fell in love! <3 Praise God, indeed!
I loved the story. It's awesome that the two of you met so young and have shared 38 years together. Congratulations and welcome to MH!
Thank you, copen1! I'm so happy to be here. God bless you