One lonely night’s phone call sparks an overseas connection, and other Seattle love stories

Seattle Dating Scene features readers’ thoughts and stories about what it’s like to date in Seattle.

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How We Met

We asked readers to submit stories about how they met their significant others. Here are some of your success stories! 

Answers have been edited for spelling and clarity.

Dwight and Ritsuko

“I was 19 years old, stationed in Japan with the Marine Corps. I was working a 12-hour graveyard shift all by myself and feeling pretty lonely and bored. So, just to have a person to talk to, I picked up the phone and dialed zero. I asked the operator if she knew the time, even though I had a big government-issued clock right in front of me. She was a Japanese national who worked for the Marine Corps on the base and spoke fluent English. We started a conversation, and I found out she had a 19-year-old daughter. She told me that sometimes the enlisted men’s club hosted bands, and she and her daughter came to listen to music. I said the next time that happened, I would meet them there.

A month or so later, there was a band at the club and we met. I can still remember her in her miniskirt and red beret. We talked and danced and had a great time. We started dating, and a year and a half later, I got orders back to the United States. When I left, I told her she should come visit me in six months, and we’d get married in one year. As soon as I landed, I got to a pay phone and told her she should come visit in three months, and we’d get married in six months.

She came to Seattle to visit, and we were married in October of 1984. Our lives took us to many interesting places. Hawaii, California, South Carolina and Okinawa and Atsugi, Japan. We have one daughter who has given us two beautiful grandchildren and a great son-in-law.

All of this because I was bored and wanted to talk to someone. When the person on the other end picked up, little did I know that two years later I would marry her daughter, and in 2021, we would be celebrating our 37th wedding anniversary.”

— Dwight

Georgi and Steve

“We met at a dinner party in Seattle hosted by a mutual friend. I was seated between two guys I had never met. The lawyer seemed impressed with himself. The machine tool guy was impressed with me. His name was Steve, and we started seeing each other.

A few years before this and in college, I had studied in Vienna and enjoyed the opera there. Steve was definitely NOT an opera guy. On one of our dates, we attended an auction, and one of the prizes was a chance to be a supernumerary in Seattle Opera’s 1982 production of ‘Turandot.’ As a surprise for me, Steve bid on it, and I got the chance to be in an opera.

A supernumerary is a role that requires minimal talent. In this opera, they needed extra women to fill the stage in a big scene where Turandot challenges the tenor. Everyone sat or stood on a giant staircase, and in every performance we hoped the tenor could make the high notes.

Around this time, Steve and I got married and moved to a house on Queen Anne. A few years later, in 1985, the Seattle Opera’s ‘Manon’ required both men and women supernumeraries. Steve played three roles — a waiter, a monk and a thug. I played a prostitute, which was funny, since I found out I was pregnant at the end of the run.

I became too busy as a mom to be in operas anymore, but Steve was captivated by the music and onstage action. He continued as a super in many Seattle Opera productions — his favorites were ‘War and Peace,’ ‘Boris Godunov’ and ‘Andrea Chénier.’ Our two boys were also supernumeraries, playing young sailors in the 2001 production of ‘Billy Budd.’

Over almost 40 years of marriage, we have been lucky to live near the Seattle Opera and travel to other cities to hear our favorites. It is an art form that we both love, along with each other!”

— Georgi