Patience and Sam

Meet Patience and Sam who fell in love on Facebook.

In 1984, Patience Smith knew Sam Bloom as the wildly popular senior who always found new ways to be in the spotlight. Many in their class would call him the class clown. By contrast, Patience was a wallflower. She had a crush on Sam but said he was “out of her league.” They never dated and barely acknowledged each other in the halls. During a formal dance, after her date had ditched her, Patience was shocked when Sam asked her to dance and pulled her into a random picture. They still have that picture.

Twenty-six years went by. Sam had married/divorced and lived in Israel, teaching college and high school French. Patience had gone into publishing in New York and had serial-dated for two decades. She was 41-yeats-old and was completely over the New York dating scene which she jokingly refers to as “buffet dating.”

Both were at a crossroads in their lives and the timing was perfect. In August 2009, in the “Suggested Friends” section on Facebook, Sam noticed “the little redhead” as one of his options and “friended” Patience immediately. For Patience, it was a no-brainer to be in contact with such a popular person from high school and she further attracted him by “liking” his morose status updates. He finally picked up the phone and called her. Their first phone conversation lasted for over two hours and their bond over the phone, on Skype and on Facebook then led to a visit four-months after they reconnected.

One Facebook friendship and three months of Skype dates later convinced them that this was “something.” He asked if he could visit and possibly “marry and father her children.” Patience said all of her girlfriends thought she was crazy, but she knew there was a connection there. In fact, they had a deal. He would come visit and would leave if they thought it was weird. Fortunately, that was not the case.

On December 17, 2009, Sam uprooted himself to go west and saw Patience for the first time in twenty-six years. He ended up staying in New York. On their first visit to his father’s house in Miami, Sam dug out the original picture of them, which he’d kept all these years. They were married on January 16, 2011 and live in New York.

Congratulations to Patience and Sam, our featured couple in Facebook Love Stories.

Do you know someone who fell in love on Facebook?

FacebookLoveStories.com celebrates those who have found love on the world’s largest social network. If you know someone who met on Facebook, invite them to share their Facebook Love Story. For more Facebook dating advice and stories, follow @FBLoveStories on Twitter.