Constable: After 40 years between dates, Kaneland High School couple tie knot
The last time they went on a date as members of the Kaneland High School's Class of 1978, Jon Love picked up Kathleen Huber in his 1969 Volkswagen Beetle, allowing her to leave her 1968 Oldsmobile Delta 88 at home. In the 40 years that followed, Love and Huber broke up, went different ways, got new cars, married other people, lost their spouses and found each other again on Facebook.
So, of course, Huber, 57, wears her new engagement ring as she spends Valentine's Day affixing pink ribbons to boxes of baked goodies during her usual shift at the Cocoa Bean in downtown Geneva. “An opal and two pink tourmalines, my birthstone, surrounded by 46 diamond chips,” Huber says of the gift from Love, 58, who is spending the romantic holiday in Great Falls, Montana, where he lives.
Both born in Geneva, Love went to a different elementary school from Huber before his family moved from Geneva to Elburn. They met in eighth grade when Huber was transferred to the junior high school in Elburn.
“We were in homeroom together and he sat a couple seats behind me,” recalls Huber, who adds that it was difficult to make friends as “the new kid.” She worked with Love on some science projects and remembers him being nice. It was sophomore year in high school that they began dating. Love says his family had bought a new house on the other side of Elburn and he was living with his grandparents in Geneva until his new digs were ready.
“She was on my way to school, so I'd pick her up in my cold Beetle,” Love remembers.
“It was freezing in the winter,” Huber says of Love's Volkswagen. But she notes that Love thoughtfully had a blanket for her to use.
They started dating sophomore year and kept the relationship going into their senior year, when it just sort of fizzled.
“We were both working on weekends and after school,” Huber says, explaining how they both needed money to afford their cars. Plus, Love was the school's lighting guy and chief photographer for theater productions, concerts and dances, so he worked on prom night.
“I went to dances with friends,” Huber says.
By graduation the couple had drifted apart.
“We had gone our separate ways. I was heading to the health field after high school, and he went into the Army,” Huber says.
“I just got caught up with the Army stuff,” remembers Love, who served eight years before joining the reserves. He served active duty with the Air Force in Iraq at the end of 2007 through the start of 2008.
Huber became an emergency medical technician in Elburn and then got a job drawing blood in a lab. She married at age 40, but her husband died just five months later. In later years, she turned to the internet in search of a companion, but she had no luck.
“I had given up on the senior online dating,” she says. “Then I ran into Jon on Facebook about five years ago.”
They caught up on each other's lives, but Love was married, had two grown children and two grandkids. His wife died in 2015, and a year later, he and Huber started adding phone calls to their online conversations. In October, Love drove to Geneva to visit his old girlfriend.
“I drove 25 straight hours,” Love says of his 1,300-mile pilgrimage.
“It was like an instant connection all over again,” Huber says. “We took a couple walks in downtown Geneva holding hands.”
When he flew back for Christmas, he was ready to buy an engagement ring. “He kind of asked me, ‘What are we going to do next?' and I said, ‘Get married?' and he said, ‘OK,'” Huber says. Love plans to move to Geneva in April and they are looking at a September wedding date. In the meantime, “I sent her three (Valentine's) cards,” Love says. “The first was nice. The second was even better.”
The third featured a dog that had gotten into the candy, which reminded Love of Huber's dog, Patsy, who drinks (“Steals,” Huber says) any unguarded cup of coffee. They can deal with that as a married couple.
“I tell everyone, we're one of those stories,” Huber says, groaning at the cliché. “These high school sweethearts 40 years later.”