This is a Lovers Lock. If you’d like to submit your own love story -and maybe have me create a personalized lock that will be added to Toronto’s Lover’s Fence- please read more about submitting here. Of course, you can always go and add your own. Toronto’s Lover’s Fence encloses Grange Park, the park behind the Art Gallery Of Ontario.

Bear’s Love Story:

I lived in Massachusetts, and he lived in Toronto, but this story takes place in Milwaukee. He was living with someone he’d been with for five years, and I had been living alone but seeing a few people for at least two years. We were at a conference.

The first night, we greeted each other briefly in that “hey, you look familiar and/or nice” kind of way. The next afternoon, the wireless internet in my room wasn’t working, so I was in the lobby, typing away. He strolled up and asked if I’d had lunch yet. I had, and I am a little thick, so I said yes. He explained that he wasn’t able to get anything to eat at the restaurants within walking distance (he was a vegan at the time; now thankfully reformed to vegetarian) and planned to set out on the city busses to a vegetarian co-op and cafe he’d found online.

I’d been on tour, and had a car with a GPS system with me. After ascertaining that he had a driver’s license, I offered it to him for his vegan excursion, no questions asked. He replied: “I only want the car if it comes with a driver.”

Oh.

I drove. Over lunch, we talked and talked. Then he reached out and casually took a swig out of my soda bottle, without asking, like you do if you’ve known each other a good long while, not an hour.

I saved the label from the soda bottle. Later, I pasted in into my journal, writing that I hoped and expected to be glad in twenty years to have saved something from our first meal together. We’ll be married May 24th, at the Royal Botanical Gardens.

I love him dearly, and I’m excited to be married to him. The truth is, I’ve been in love before. But I have never liked anyone, ever, as much as I like j.

with all best wishes for the success of your project,

Bear