We discovered this after sorting through a charming collection of entries for our first-ever Valentine's Day essay contest. The rules were simple—give us a 300-word essay on how you and your significant other fell in love and we'd give the finest entry a dinner for two at Ristorante Valeriano in Los Gatos.

Although every entry we received was just as special and interesting as the couple that wrote it, we could only name one official winner. The competition was fierce, but after much hemming and hawing, crying and cheering, a decision was reached: Congratulations to Norma and Richard Faulkner of Los Gatos! With 42 years together, this couple is a genuine testament to enduring, quiet love that never takes itself for granted.


Faulkners go together like salt and pepper

Sometimes you can just see the love between two people—the way they walk together, the way they sit, the way they look at one another.

It's a sense that you get from watching Norma and Richard Faulkner, who after 42 years together have an honest, open and decidedly comfortable life together.

It began with a random encounter at some lunch tables at San José State. Richard was seven years older than Norma. He had served in the U.S. Army and was back in school, studying engineering while working part time for IBM.

Norma was studying education and frequently took her books to the cafeteria. After Richard sat down and asked Norma to "pass the salt, please," the two easily struck up a conversation.

"It just felt comfortable, like I had known her for a long time right after we met," Richard says.

"And I thought he was pretty cute," Norma adds, smiling.

Soon the two were dating—going to movies and coffee, discussing Richard's childhood in Campbell and Norma's in Santa Cruz.

"You know how sometimes when you meet someone, you wonder what you're going to talk about next and there are those awkward pauses?" Norma says. "We never had that; it just flowed."

Richard said it is difficult to pin down what exactly made him fall in love with Norma. "I loved her very much from the beginning. I can't describe why or how," he says. "I did always appreciate that she had a sense for being on time, though," he adds, eliciting a puzzled look from Norma.

"I always enjoyed his sense of humor," she says. "He is a quiet, serious guy and very methodical. But he has a wacky sense of humor I always liked."

They were engaged at Norma's senior prom, 16 months after meeting—Richard had already graduated. The two were married eight months later, while Norma was student teaching.

"We had the smallest wedding in the world," Norma says of their marriage in a Campbell church. The two honeymooned at Disneyland.

"We had no financial stability," she says. "We figured we would start our life and do that all together—and it worked."

The pair glided along through Richard's career as a business manager and San Jose airport committee chairman and Norma's as a teacher and later marketing director for Applied Materials. They had two children and now have one granddaughter.

With so many years together, the two have a somewhat unspoken understanding about how to get along.

"I can count the number of our fights on one hand," Richard says. "We don't call each other names; we talk things out easily and resolve issues when something is critical."

Norma agrees. "I think we treat each other nicely, like friends. And we don't take each other for granted."

Although the two enjoy traveling together, they have many different interests. Norma says allowing each other the freedom to invest in separate hobbies is very important to a marriage. "We go our separate ways quite a bit during the day, but we come back together at night," she says.

All in all, the two say their time together has gone by quickly.

"Timing is everything in life. You never know that one day is going to be the day that changes your life," Norma says.

"I didn't believe in 'the one' back then, but I do now," Richard says. "It has been wonderful our whole time together."

Photograph by George Sakkestad Norma and Richard Faulkner of Los Gatos have shared 42 years of marriage, and now have shared the story of how they met with Los Gatos Weekly-Times readers.

By Norma Faulkner

On a warm October evening in 1959, I took a break from studying in the San José State library to grab a quick dinner at the college cafeteria.

"Could you pass the salt, please?" I looked up at the smiling man who had placed his tray at the other end of my table. Hmm, I thought—broad shoulders, nice eyes. I closed my textbook. I reached for something clever to say but came up empty-handed. "Would you like the pepper, too?" I said, handing him the shakers. I noticed a deep dimple in his chin that I wanted to reach out and touch.

Richard introduced himself. We chatted through dinner and on our way to the library. I felt as if we'd been friends for years. When this quiet man with the wacky sense of humor asked me for a date I quickly said, "Yes."

Over the next few months our courtship was squeezed between classes and part-time jobs. While JFK campaigned to become president and Project Mercury trained for space travel, we spent as much time together as possible. We went to the movies; laughed at the local group—the Smothers Brothers—and, God, danced at the senior prom. We splurged on huge, 90-cent hamburgers at Original Joe's. We sat in our future dream car, a sporty TR3, at the local showrooms. Within a few months we started planning a future together. In February 1961, 16 months after we met, we were married.

Over our four-plus decades together I've occasionally wondered, what if I hadn't stopped at the cafeteria that evening? What if Richard had decided to study at home? But then I'm certain we were destined to meet. Somewhere I would have heard, "Could you pass the salt, please?" And our lifelong romance would have begun.


Love means never having to eat boiled liver

By Mac McMillan

In 1988, my wife of 45 years died of cancer. In addition to caring for my wife during her illness, Hospice of the Valley also provided grief counseling after her death. As these sessions progressed, I met other survivors and we discussed our problems. Several sessions later I sat across the table from one of the widows, who had a very interesting smile. After the meeting I asked if "she would like to get better acquainted." She said she would and we agreed to meet at a Los Gatos bakery the following Saturday morning. We continued to meet there every Saturday morning and told each other our stories.

One day I related my story of coming out of the jungles of Burma in World War II with amoebic dysentery and being hospitalized in Kandy, Ceylon. There I was treated with medication that poisoned my liver, resulting in a bad case of jaundice. They could give me no medication but put me on a diet of plain boiled liver and plain boiled potatoes. I hated liver but ate to survive. Some weeks later a new doctor arrived from the States with a new medication called Sulfaguanidine, a specific drug for amoebic dysentery. I healed and went back to duty. When I told her this story, she said, "I helped develop that medicine." So I fell in love with her for saving me from a lifetime of boiled liver and potatoes.

We were married Nov. 2, 1991, at Saratoga Federated Church.

Photograph by George Sakkestad For five years Sandy and Ryan Forbes have waltzed through their marriage together. The two met and fell in love through dancing and now teach dance to Los Gatos and Saratoga residents in private and recreation center classes.

By Ryan and Sandy Forbes

Love—the most magical force in the universe and the greatest gift in life!

Sandy, a young girl in Kansas, had dreamed of one day dancing with her prince. It took a move to California and a 21-year marriage to find him.

Ryan, a young man in Hawaii, enjoyed dancing and entered the profession of dance instruction. It took a move to California and 28 years of teaching dance to find her.

Destiny merged their course when Sandy and her husband enrolled in Ryan's dance class. On the first night of class Sandy, unaware of what the future had in store, deliberated with her husband: "Should we take this class or just go to the movies?" Fate chose dance.

Gradually Sandy assisted with dance classes in trade for lessons, as Ryan became a family friend. Six years passed before Ryan ended an 11-year relationship with his girlfriend. Just three months later Sandy's husband, meeting the woman of his dreams, ended their marriage.

Romance was then free to blossom from a friendship into a second chance of passion and oneness they had not known before. Sandy's childhood dream came true: dancing with her prince! Ryan proposed marriage to Sandy with a specially made engagement ring on Valentine's Day in the lovely gardens of the Shadowbrook Restaurant. Later that evening, while teaching dance classes, the students noticed a glow on both their faces that wasn't just from the reflection of Sandy's red dress!

Together they reside in Los Gatos, teaching dance to many residents in Los Gatos and the surrounding areas through city recreation departments. They treasure sharing with students their second-chance romance through the love of dance.