These Love Stories Will Warm Your Heart on Valentine's Day

Finding Love and a New Kidney Online

A man got his happy ending twice over when he met his soulmate — who was also a perfect match for the kidney transplant he needed — on Tinder. "Expect the unexpected," Reid Alexander told PEOPLE in September 2021. "I never would've thought that I would move across the country and meet the love of my life, and then the love of my life would also be a perfect match, and I would get a kidney." Added Alexander's husband, Rafael Diaz, "It was meant to be." Though Alexander, who suffers from Alport syndrome, was hesitant to let Diaz donate his kidney, "I was very sure that I [could] do it," says Diaz, who was already registered as an organ donor at the time. "I just said, 'I want to. You are someone that I want, that I love, so I can do it for you.'" Read their full story here.

'It's Wonderful Not to Be Lonely'

Several decades after they lost contact, Florence Harvey, of Caledon, Ontario, decided to call her high school boyfriend, Frederick Paul, around Valentine's Day in 2020. Paul's wife Helen had died in November 2019, two years after Harvey lost her husband Len in November 2017, and she wanted to offer some support. "The first year after you lose your mate, it's a very, very lonely year. Every holiday is a lonely time," Florence told PEOPLE in 2021. "I knew that Fred was probably going through that, and I thought, 'Well, I'm lonely, it's Valentine's, he's probably lonely also. I'll say hello.' And that's it." But it was just the beginning of their rekindled love. "You'd think we'd been married for 60 years to each other — that's the way we feel," said Paul, who married Harvey in August 2021 in front of 30 loved ones at Norval United Church in Georgetown, Ontario. "We just love being together," said Florence. "It's wonderful not to be lonely and to have someone to share everything with." Read their full story here.

The Power of Online Education

In the spring of 2019, Ed and Nadine Hallisy were just two fellow students taking virtual classes at Southern New Hampshire University. Little did they know they'd someday get married. Ed, from Cleveland, Ohio, and Nadine, from Santa Clarita, California, quickly hit it off during an international business course, flirting over a class discussion board before taking their romance to the phone, with calls, text messages and FaceTimes. After tying the knot last July, the couple marked another exciting milestone in November 2021: Ed graduated from SNHU with Nadine by his side. "Neither one of us was looking for anything when we started at SNHU," Ed told PEOPLE that month. "It's just amazing — we compliment each other very well. I feel very grateful and very blessed. It all fell into place." Added Nadine: "If this story had been written by someone, it would've sounded like it was too good to be true... We were not looking for each other, but when we found each other, it was kinda like, 'Hey, this feels right.' It just felt comfortable and natural." Read their full story here.

An Uber Surprise

You never know who you'll meet during an UberPool ride — just ask Rachel Chazanovitz and Mark DeSantis. It was the Saturday before Halloween 2017 when the strangers opted to take the ride-share option due to surge pricing in South Boston. "I used UberPool a lot because there was a solid chance you wouldn't even pick anyone up," Chazanovitz told PEOPLE last October. "So when he was already in the car, I was like, 'Aw, come on... it's going to take so long to get home.' " Added DeSantis: "I thought the same thing too. I was so upset when we had to pick her up.'" But the two struck up a conversation over DeSantis' lack of costume and quickly hit it off. After getting engaged in 2020, the couple tied the knot in Boston last year, nearly four years after their serendipitous Uber ride. Said Chazanovitz, "I think everyone is in the right place at the right time." Read their full story here.

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