It started with a swipe

People often ask us how two people from opposite sides of the Earth ended up finding each other and falling in love—and our answer is always the same: it’s all thanks to God’s incredible sense of humor. With a little divine intervention and some earthly nudging, sometimes love just needs the right push—and in our case, that came in the form of technology… and a few determined friends.

Three years ago, one such friend decided Melissa needed a dating profile and took matters into their own hands—much to her surprise the next morning! After being single for years, she finally agreed to dip her toe back into the dating pool… and the rest, as they say, is history. At the same time, Marius was visiting his best friend’s house after a tough breakup. Feeling a little low, he half-heartedly began swiping through profiles, unimpressed—until Melissa’s photo popped up. He paused, showed his friend, and asked, “What about her?” His friend, maybe just trying to lift his spirits, smiled and said, “Yes!” And with that, everything changed.

Though Melissa initially insisted on meeting just for coffee, Marius convinced her to join him for a glass of wine instead. That one glass turned into hours of conversation, and by the end of the evening, we were closing down the restaurant, both knowing we had found something truly special.

Since then, our life together has been full of laughter, adventure, and love—motorcycle rides, grandkids, rugby games, graduations, and more. Our journey has taken us from the county fair in Melissa’s hometown in northwest Washington to watching zebras roam freely in Marius’s native South Africa. But beyond the incredible places we’ve been, the shared moments in between have mattered most. From that very first date, the conversation has never stopped—and neither has the love we’ve found in each other.