Mount Pleasant Magazine Jan/Feb 2023

37 www. ReadMPM. com | www.MountPl easantMagaz i ne. com | www.MountPl easantPodcas t . com see Abbie every other weekend. By July, she moved north. They got engaged on the one-year anniversary of the first day Mark walked into the Rusty Bull. Seventy-two days later, they were married. Naturally, they held their reception at the Rusty Bull. After living in Pennsylvania for “three winters,” as Abbie put it, they decided to return to Mount Pleasant. A week prior to the move, they found out they were pregnant. Now, the baby is 10 months old. It was a whirlwind that worked. They credit the strength of their relationship to those long hours talking at the bar, and that really, truly, awfully terrible pickup line. THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS COINCIDENCE Sometimes in life, there are signs that just can’t be ignored. In the case of Don Reinhart, 80, and Libby Little, 74, the signs resulted in a second chance at romance, companionship and true love. Throughout their adult lives, they couldn’t have been closer in terms of mileage. Don owned a horse farm in Maryland; Libby lived 4 miles away. Their children went to the same schools, and they went to the same church. “We could have stood on the same sports fields,” said Libby. “But we never met.” Both were happily married, raising families and growing older. Then tragedy struck Don when he lost his wife 10 years ago. Libby’s husband passed away five years later. And still, they never met. Until, that is, they both moved into the same senior community in Mount Pleasant, S.C. — three states away — on the same day. “My oldest daughter had a little puppy,” said Don. “She took the puppy out to do its business and saw a woman with another Dachshund. They stared talking, and when my daughter came back, she told me, ‘You’ll never believe it, but I just met a lady named Libby who lived 4 miles from us in Maryland!’” Later that day, Don walked to the market for lunch and saw a friend of his sitting with a lady. The friend introduced them, and when Don learned her name, something clicked. “I said, ‘Are you the Libby that just talked to my daughter,’ and she said yes,” he recalled. “Our eyes met, and I asked her to dinner, and she said yes.” The pair has been inseparable ever since, first in their own apartments, then together in Don’s. Now they’re in a slightly bigger place they selected together, and from furniture (both like Chippendale and Queen Anne styles) to families, they’ve blended their lives seamlessly together. “Have we ever had an argument?” Don asked Libby. “Absolutely not,” she replied. Libby has Parkinson’s, but it never made Don question the relationship. “I just turned 80, and you know something’s going awry in your own body,” he said, laughing. “But we do everything. We go to the theater together. We do dinner together. We shop together. We do what normal people do.” feature Abbi e and Mar k Love.

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