"Something No One Else Had Ever Done": 59 Times Boyfriends Proved They Were Worth Marrying

I’m South American and my boyfriend (now husband) is Canadian (where we met). When we first started dating, I was talking about my family and mentioned how sad it makes me that a lot of cousins spouses never learned Spanish + my family overseas misses so many big moments.

Without bragging or announcing it, this man learned Spanish on his own. We fly home once a year and seeing him comfortably chit chatting in Spanish to my family STILL makes me emotional. My tías and my mom LOVE him.

Also, he proposed to me back in my home country. We went for a walk at a park near my house, he proposed, and we went back inside to tell the family sitting at the table. They popped champagne and celebrated us. He remembered how sad I was that they’d always get the news over the phone, so he made a point to do it where I could announce to them in person.

One of the first things he did was ask if any of my jeans didn’t have actual pockets in them.

I told him which ones and next week all of them had pockets that were hand sewed.

I mean, how could I not lock down a man like that?

He asked for a second date and I told him I couldn't on that Saturday because I had to refinish my kitchen cabinets. They were hideous and didn't open/close well. He came over and helped me refinish them. As a second date. Yep. That was 38 years ago and we're still going strong.

Flunked out of college at 19, moved home and met my husband. didn’t go back to school for a while, eventually started taking community college classes because I had always felt like a failure for not finishing my Bachelor’s and it’s something that’s extremely important to me. I was so stressed about college and how I would pay for it, etc. but kept taking classes and figured I’d worry about student loans when it came time to try and transfer to a four-year institution.

husband (boyfriend at the time) got a job interview at the (very good) university that he’d graduated from and spent the entire week leading up to it unbelievably stressed, preparing more for that interview than I’ve ever seen someone prepare. It didn’t even pay particularly well, and he didn’t love his time living in the college town so I was really confused about why he cared so much and a little pissy about how he’d been no fun all week.

After the interview, he was so nervous about it that I didn’t even want to ask how it went or bring it up at all. He ended up getting the job, and when he told me, he said that the reason he had been so pressed to be hired was because they offer full tuition remission to the spouses and long-term partners of staff and faculty. He hadn’t wanted to jinx it, but the reason he applied and wanted to work there was because he wanted to be able to give me the education I had spent so many years working towards and dreaming about. He said that being able to help me get my Bachelor’s was something that he wanted to do so badly because he loves me and admires me and knowing that it was a weight on me made him sad.

We were dating for 8 years before we got married, and there were plenty of other moments in that time that made me realize I wanted to be with him forever, but that really sealed the deal and showed me he was serious about not only sharing a life with me, but making sure that I am always taken care of in every way, no matter what.

I was having a horrible time with birth control. He got a vasectomy so I didn’t have to suffer.

We were already engaged when this happened, but one thing that really sealed the deal for me was this past Lunar New Year. I’m adopted and feel sad about being disconnected from my culture.

As a child, me and my adopted family celebrated LNY as a huge holiday. As I became an adult, I continued to celebrate alone and hand out red envelopes, explaining the significance, but no one really cared.

This year, my fiancé 3D printed me a red envelope and put a five dollar bill in it. It was the first time I had received a red envelope since childhood.

I had that “when you know, you know” feeling prior to this point but this situation really sealed it for me:

I had to get surgery & anesthesia for the first time in my life. I was really anxious about the anesthesia and equally nervous that it was imperative he cared for me at least for the first few days of recovery. This was the first time in my life and in our relationship where I couldn’t stubbornly reject help. I had to really lean on him.

This man took a day off work to drive me to the appt and back, spent the next few days of his weekend taking care of me, made me food, when I was good to be alone he spent whatever time he wasn’t working with me. He got me whatever I needed when needed (switching out ice packs, water, pain meds, etc.) and checked in on me religiously. This sounds like very simple low bar stuff, and it is, and also as someone who grew up hyper independent and with a previous partner who was a hobosexual, it was eye opening to not only be treated this way. I could be in a vulnerable position, let down my guard, and it not backfire.

This was all massive for me, but what truly locked it in for me was this: the first week I could only sleep for about 4 hours, and every 4 hours around the clock I needed pain medication. I’d wake up in terrible pain and move myself from the bedroom to the living room so he could sleep. Without fail, every night, he would wake up immediately and ask if I needed ice packs or medication and retrieve both for me, and when I’d leave, he’d follow me out of our room half asleep and plop on the second couch. I told him he can stay in bed and he refused and said that he wanted to make sure he was nearby “just in case”.

If this wasn’t unconditional love, reliability, and devotion, I don’t know what is.

My mother passed away 7 years before I met him. I once reminisced drunkenly with him about an old Chicago Bulls cap she got for me to wear for school; describing it and the approximate year she gave it to me. My birthday wasn’t until another 8-9 months. My birthday comes and yeah - there it was. A new version of mama’s hat for me - 27 years later. X.

He drove 4.5 hours home from college just to be with me after my dog suddenly passed away and my pap was in the hospital. I laid on the couch and cried the whole time. He made a flatbread pizza for me before he left that evening. 9.5 hours of driving in a day just to sit for a couple hours while I cried.

He did chores at my house without being asked-took out garbage, walked my dog, did dishes, etc.

I knew he would never be a man-child and sit on the couch while I scurried around doing things.

Pretty early on dating, I began having extreme allergies that caused hives and rashes all over my body constantly. I was staying over his place one night and woke up in the middle of the night just so hot, itchy, and uncomfortable. He woke up with me and while I took a shower, I just remember him sitting outside the tub facing away and he started singing in this beautiful, deep rich voice. He usually doesn’t sing out loud to people, but he just resonated through him with this song that I don’t even know the title of. I felt so grateful in the moment to have a distraction and also to just know he was there for me. He did a lot for me during that time at my lowest when I was figuring out my health and never let me feel less beautiful during it.

My now-husband is a volunteer firefighter. One summer he'd been running up and down hills in full gear on a 40 degree Celcius day and got heatstroke. I got him in a tepid bath and got some glucose and salt into him but just couldn't get him to sweat, and he described not quite feeling real, so I called the ambulance. They came, and even vomiting, with heatstroke and not himself he was so sweet with the ambulance guys that while I was hauling his 6"8 naked behind out of the bath and he apologised for getting water all over me I thought "If he passed away tonight I'd really regret not being his wife"

He was fine, he started sweating just after we got him out of the bath and I told him I wanted to be his wife the next day. Then he almost single-handedly planned the wedding because I was so busy, and that just solidified it for me. He's the best.

We started dating at 19 (and are now 40), and it was actually something his Dad did. I saw flowers in their kitchen (from his Dad to his Mom) with a note that said “thank you for all you do for all of us”. It wasn’t her birthday or Mother’s Day. I realized he was raised with a good example of a healthy marriage.

I have a congenital limb loss affecting my left arm below the elbow.

Every guy I'd dated before would "forget" about it, treating me like I had the capabilities of any normal person, which I thought was great. But then I met my now husband, and he *held* my arm like he was holding a regular hand without even a second thought, something no one else had ever done. It was such a pure acceptance of me that I didn't even know I'd been missing.

Absolutely no game playing at all. He called when he said he would, arranged frequent dates, was always excited to see me and was fully happy for me to be part of his life and for us to meet each other's friends. We're still together almost 30 years later.

He dated me thinking I was hiding 2 kids as siblings (huge age gap). And was willing to take me and them on.. that and he made me feel safe.

10 years later, he is an amazing father.. my sibs would have been lucky to have him.

I always said jokingly I wanted someone to read my mind. My husband comes pretty close. The first time I slept over his house and was headed home after a snowy weekend, after he packed up my things in my car and cleaned it off for me to be ready to drive before I even woke up, he hands me a hot thermos of my favorite tea on my way out. I’ve never felt more cared for by another person who isn’t my mom lol.

We have been dating since we were teenagers, and I had been daydreaming about learning to play the cello for years. As soon as he turned 18, he started working hard in a factory so he could gift me a cello for my birthday. I never learned to play properly because it was too hard and didn't have time for formal lessons, so a couple of years later, he proposed that we sell the cello and use the money to go on a trip, which would be extremely cheap and we would go car-hammock-camping around. We did that, and we still remember that trip to this day as the best trip of our lives. This year we make 15 years together and are getting married.

Not my story, but my daughter in law told this story during their reception dinner when asked when she knew he was the one.

My son had organised their first date, so she took the lead on the second. It went terribly from the outset, everything from traffic jams to a fender bender, and then braving heavy rain only to finally find out that because of the storm the fireworks they planned to watch were cancelled.

After a long pause, she added, “And yet, it was the best evening I had ever had. That was when I figured that if someone can roll with such a terrible sequence of events and make it a fun ride, I’m finding a way of keeping him in my life for sure!”.

Little children and pets we're naturally attracted and felt safe with him. This man deserved to spread his genes, and I would offer as tribute. 30th anniversary and two children after, the little babies still fall asleep immediately and the cats flock around him. Pure Bliss.