DALLAS — “I think it’s the strongest force on earth.”
That's what 9-year-old Zeb Bhutto said when asked what love means to him. He was just one of many who randomly volunteered to sit down and share what the four-letter word means to them.
The setup included a floral print loveseat, and signs that read “Tell me a Story?” in the middle of Klyde Warren Park in downtown Dallas.
Myself and Dallas Spectrum News 1 reporter Stacy Rickard were on a mission to fulfill a long-standing tradition I’ve had of documenting what people will share when asked to talk about love, and what it means to them.
The idea was first created as a final project for a film-documentary class I took at the University of North Texas. It then re-appeared as a three-year Valentine’s tradition at my previous job as a reporter with Big 2 News, the ABC affiliate in Odessa, Texas. I was very excited when I got the green light to produce the piece again for Spectrum News 1. It’s a passion project I will press to produce in one form or another every year for as long as I’m a journalist.
When we arrived at the park it was a cloudy and cold Saturday morning. We hoped people would be as excited as we were to produce a love-themed news story to air the weekend of Valentine’s Day.
Thankfully, after an hour the sun came out and the sky turned blue. We were happy to start catching interest almost as soon as we started setting up. Throughout the day we had to turn people away to make room for those we’d already queued to interview.
Just as soon as we finished setting up, eager to sit down and share were Southern Methodist University (SMU) students Liliann DeVos and Derek Yonkers.
She’s 19, he’s 20, and they’re both on the cheer team at SMU and spend a lot of time together on and off the football field. Together for just over a year they know they’re young but say their love is strong in the little ways.
DeVos shared a story of a time when Yonkers recently made her feel loved by walking 15 minutes to save her from a cockroach in her shower.
“I'm definitely terrified of them,” said DeVos, “It’s just the little things he does to show me that he cares.”
Whether it’s sending her text messages to see how her day is or walking at night to save her from a harmless bug, Yonkers says he feels blessed to show DeVos how much he loves her.
Valentine’s Day 2021 will be their second celebrated as a couple and when asked the awkward question, by yours truly, if they saw a long future together, neither hesitated to respond.
“I know we’re young but what we have is really something special,” said Yonkers.
He says a future together is inevitable, DeVos agrees.
Another couple who says a future together is inevitable are Irving residents Edgar Morgan and Miriam Barbato. Both say they're not wasting time dating but instead practicing Christian courting to cement a strong relationship. As devout Catholics, they define courtship as an intentional and purposeful process carried out with marriage as the ultimate goal.
“It means we're both being respectful, honorable, exclusive, and chaste, in this committed and loving relationship,” said Morgan as he sat with Barbato’s hand in his. “That will be a testimony for the world. That’s what we hope.”
Barbato says she feels “blessed by God” to have found Morgan and both say after just two months of courting they know marriage is going to happen.
Speaking of soulmates, 20-year-old Fort Worth resident Bobby Wilson is confident he’s found one in his girlfriend Myrakl Skye. They’ve been together for three years and he says the love she’s shown him time after time has made him a better person. Wilson recently gave Skye a promise ring to let her know he’s serious about a future together.
“It’s the reason why I am where I am right now,” he said with a glossy eyes, “It’s a buildup. Her love has helped build me to be the man that I want to be. I just can't explain it, because here love is everything.”
Another guy who claims he’s found his everything is Plano resident Mike Gould. He’s a single father to his daughter Abi Gosselin and wasn’t a part of her life until she was 6 years old.
Now she’s 12 years old and Gould says he’s making up for lost time by being the best father possible.
“You know, I always apologize that I wasn't there for the first six years,” said Gould.
When asked if she resents her father for being distant in her early years, Gosselin was fast to reply. “The fact that he's here now is enough for me,” she said.
We had a busy day of listening to heartwarming love stories from couples, singles and kids like Fort Worth siblings Robert Duke and Rachel Dylan Weaver, who say love is something as simple as being nice to one another even when you don’t agree.
Our last interview for the day was serendipitous and just the thing I was hoping to capture when I asked Klyde Warren Park’s media relations team to partner with us for this piece. As we were wrapping up our time in the park, just across the street from our setup, Arlington residents Reynaldo Garza and Victoria Medrano got engaged.
Garza and Medrano have been together for two years and are looking forward to many more together. They first met in 2015 while at a gathering with a large group of people. They had a mutual friend at the event and Medrano vividly recalls the moment she first saw Garza.
“I remember thinking when I first saw him, ‘wow, the tall one is cute!’” She says they both hit it off, but Garza and the friends he was with had to leave early and she thought she’d never see him again. That was until 2019 when the weekend after Valentine’s Day she recognized him at their mutual friend's party. “And we hit it off again,” she said. “We’ve been together ever since!”
When asked why he asked for her hand in marriage the week before the holiday of love Garza said he wanted to be able to call Medrano his fiancé on Valentine’s Day, not a girlfriend.
“It was about time,” he said, choking back tears and a smile. “She kept asking and asking, and I knew she was the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, and it just made sense.”
Medrano says she knows their marriage won't always be “rainbows and sunshine” but she’s looking forward to many more Valentine’s with Garza.
When asked what her advice is for a happy relationship, she says it’s a matter of making your significant other a priority every day.
“It’s about not forgetting about the other person and always having them in your heart, even if you're mad at them,” she said.
Whether it's a love between siblings or with your soulmate, our goal with this story was to convey there's always a story of love to be told, and according to Zeb it’s one we all can share.
When I asked him why he thought love was the “strongest force on earth,” his answer was simple: “Because everybody feels it, every day.”
Stacy and I both got teary eyed and smiled.
If you have an interesting story or an issue you’d like to see covered, let us know about it. Share your ideas with DFW reporter Lupe Zapata: Lupe.Zapata@Charter.com