Eric Krueger has long dreamed of visiting Ireland. But without a spouse or partner, he decided to book a 10-day trip for solo travelers last May, visiting various cities throughout the Emerald Isle.
About halfway through the trip, Krueger and three other solo travelers went to Galway, Western Ireland, where they checked out local shops. After tiring of shopping, Amy Kinnard, 47, who says she has “too many tattoos to count”, suggested we go to a local tattoo shop and get some ink as a memento of the trip.
“Eric said, ‘If you’re going to get a tattoo, I’m going to get a tattoo,'” Kinnard recalls. “I thought, ‘Deal.’
They chose similar Celtic knot tattoos and spent the rest of the day getting to know each other as they explored the coastal town together.
He was hungover, she felt ‘terrible’ — but then he took an empty seat on the plane: ‘Love at first sight’ (Exclusive)
“We really hit it off,” Kinnard says. “The conversation was so easy. It was like I had known him forever.”
“We both felt that there was something there,” she adds. “But none of us really wanted to say anything.”
Amy Kinnard and Eric Krueger’s matching tattoos.
Courtesy of Amy Kinnard and Eric Krueger
Since Kinnard lived near San Francisco and Krueger lived north of Dallas, the distance between them was 2,700 miles, so distance was an issue. Nevertheless, they exchanged numbers and planned to meet during Kinnard’s stopover at the Dallas airport on his way home.
Then the phone calls started. “It was like the conversation just started that day in Galway,” says Krueger, who flew to visit Kinnard two weeks later and kissed her for the first time at the San Francisco airport in early June.
Do you have a sweet story the world needs to know? Send details to [email protected] for a chance to be featured in Real-Life Love, People.com’s series dedicated to sharing extraordinary connections and heartfelt gestures.
“It was an amazing visit,” says Kinnard, who later told friends, “I’m going to marry this guy. He is such a supportive, kind person, super fun personality.”
“It was like Galway again,” adds Kinnard.
A destination wedding miracle! Couple make it to Italy ‘one way or another’ after dog eats passport (Exclusive)
In July – less than three months after their first meeting in Ireland – Krueger proposed to Kinnard on bended knee when she visited him in Texas.
“I was completely surprised,” says Kinnard, who has since retired from her job as a health clinic manager and moved to Texas to be with Krueger.
The couple plans to tie the knot on January 25 in California, with Tom Foster, director of EF Go Ahead Tours, officiating the wedding ceremony.
Love at first flight: a woman told a fellow passenger that she thought she was going to get married. Now they are engaged! (Exclusive)
“Amy and I met was completely natural, it was completely organic,” says Krueger, the show’s host. “We weren’t trying to do anything. Everything flowed.”
“Eric is that person who just gets me and I feel like I get him. No matter what we do, we have a good time doing it,” adds Kinnard. “It is important that people remain open to possibilities. You never know when love might find you.”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education