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love stories

Love Stories

WW2 lovers were separated after a blind date cut short, so she drew a map of where to find her

Their unbelievable love story was recorded in hundreds of love letters found by their grandson.

@crewdoyle/TikTok

Where can we watch this movie?

There’s just something about romance stories from WWII that feel like they all belong on the big screen. Looking back on a time of so much urgency and impermanence, those fleeting moments of connection seem even more poignant. It’s truly a testament to the power of love itself, and its ability to withstand even the most unimaginable strife and conflict.

Many of us might carry the love stories of our own parents and grandparents from his era, but for those that don’t, read on. And honestly, even those that do will want to hear this touching tale.

In a truly tear-jerking series posted to TikTok, Drew Coyle shared how he discovered hundreds of heartfelt letters sent by his grandmother Helen to his grandfather Bill, which chronicle their epic love story—from a brief, yet potent blind date, to a promise that took years to fulfill.

@crewdoyle The start of a WW2 love story - Mañana: A Pacific Romance
♬ Last Hope (Over Slowed + Reverb) - Steve Ralph

Bill and Helen first met on December 7, 1944 while both were stationed in the Phillipines— Bill, a traveling sailor, and Hellen, volunteering as a Red Cross "doughnut girl.” That night, enough sparks flew on the dance floor that they made a promise to see each other the next morning. Or as they called it, their “mañana.”


ww2 stories, ww2 romance, ww2 romance novel, ww2 history, ww2 letters, love letters, love stories, romanceA photo of Helen and Bill in their uniformsImages provided by Drew Coyle

But keeping that mañana promise, as it turned out, wouldn’t be so easy. Helen was unexpectedly relocated to Guam the next day, where she stayed in a hut without a telephone, and any messages left at the front desk didn’t always get transferred to their recipient. Still, the young woman was determined to maintain their connection through the letters.

Below are some of the deeply poetic words she wrote in letter #75, which would end up being particularly pivotal in their love story.

@crewdoyle A lonely girl draws him a map 😭
♬ Peaceful Sincerity - Pemancing Biru


“We’re in this together, my dearest…we’re moving forward, hand in hand…haven’t we already proven to our own satisfaction that we walk in the same path at the same speed with the same reactions? And haven’t we already found that there’s a kiss at the end of the walk?

I’m more content than I’ve been in ages…I feel as if I were on the brink of one of life’s greatest adventures, and it is in my nature to be eager when something new and strange and powerful presents itself.

‘Wishing will make it so’ has become my theme song ever since yesterday when I learned it was yours with two of us wishing it will be so. I am reminded of the words of a man I once knew. He insisted that two people were stronger than anything, stronger than one, or three, or five people. Perhaps he was right, let's make it so and prove the point.


- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Helen assured Bill that though they were apart, that he “needn’t worry” about any dancing partners stealing her away on the new island, because “they’re always you,” and urged him to “not give up” on finding her.

She even drew him a map detailing where she was located. It just so happened to include a nearby chapel.

ww2 stories, ww2 romance, ww2 romance novel, ww2 history, ww2 letters, love letters, love stories, romanceThe map provided by Helen to Bill@crewdoyle/TikTok

To think, without that letter, their story might have been cut short. But clearly it worked, because here we have their grandson retelling the story 80 years later. As Coyle wrote on his website, “Helen's innocent act to initiate correspondence caused a ripple effect that would change not only their lives, but lead to me.”

ww2 stories, ww2 romance, ww2 romance novel, ww2 history, ww2 letters, love letters, love stories, romanceHelen and Bill, happy and and content, and oh so in love. Image from Drew Coyle

Passionate to spread their story even further, Coyle created a coffee table book, aptly named Mañana: A Pacific Romance, which you can pre-order here.

In a time of online dating, text messaging, and seemingly very little time to get beyond a “love you honey,” this feels especially heartwarming. What would happen if we engaged in just a portion of thoughtful loving expressions as Helen and Bill had? Would we too feel as though our partnerships were fated? Is this type of romance purely a product of the time period, and something we’d never be able to replicate in a world of modern convenience? These are all ponderous questions without answer, but one thing feels crystal clear: love is indeed a great adventure, if we choose to answer the call.

Follow Drew Coyle on TikTok to hear him read even more of those wonderful letters.

The intimate moment has become a viral sensation online.

For people with alopecia, hair is a complicated business. Alopecia is an autoimmune condition that causes hair to fall out. Sometimes it's unnoticeable, but sometimes it falls out in patches, and when those patches connect, it can become quite noticeable. At that point, some people with alopecia choose to shave their heads and embrace baldness, wear wigs, or both.

A video that first went viral after being shared by Rex Chapman on Twitter shows a woman having her head shaved by a man with the caption, "His girlfriend was struggling with her hair loss from alopecia. Get out the tissues. Humanity."


@eva_barilaro

After months growing my #hair for the first time in 10 years I had to ask my #boyfriend to #shave my #head again... first time was my granddad.

It's clear from the get go that the woman is feeling emotional, occasionally wiping her eyes as he repeatedly runs the razor over her head. And it's clear that he cares for her—you can see it in the way he tenderly holds her neck as he shaves.

Eva Barilaro, who posted the video to her TikTok account, wrote: “After months growing my hair for the first time in ten years, I had to ask my boyfriend to shave my head again.” But then, just as he's finishing the final touches, he turns the razor around, and oof. Seriously, you might want to grab a tissue.

Alopecia is a fairly common condition, with an estimated 100 people living with it across the world and around 7 million in the U.S. alone. And yet it remains a deeply stigmatizing thing for people affected it by it, who often have to describe their condition to strangers and navigating personal and professional challenges at work, in their dating lives, or just navigating through public spaces. Even worse, there's no cure for alopecia and the treatments can be maddening, sometimes resulting in complete improvements while others suffer near total hair loss permanently.

The video has been viewed by more than 10 million people across social media and drew heartfelt accolades from celebrities and normal people alike, including Ben Stiller:

Sweet, selfless solidarity. This is what real love looks like. People on Twitter chimed in with their own alopecia experiences and stories about going through chemo for cancer and losing their hair.



Many can relate to the emotional experience of shaving their hair off and the realization that they could be beautiful bald. The woman in this video rocks the shaved head. The guy...well, a little hard to tell until he finishes the job, but his act of kindness and compassion is definitely beautiful.


Unsplash

They crashed into love, you could say.

If you think it's hard meeting people these days, maybe you're just not thinking outside of the box. Dating apps, speed dating, and blind set ups by friends are old news. If you want to make a stronger connection, maybe it's time you looked in some more unexpected places. Do you have a hot dentist? Fight through the numbness in your tongue and tell them how you feel. Ever swapped numbers with a political canvasser that came knocking on your door? At least you already know whether you agree on politics.

All kidding aside, it is tough to find love in 2025. But, as cliche as it sounds, you really do sometimes find it in the last place you'd ever expect.

A wild story out of China is proving that love can be found in the strangest of places.

A 36-year-old man named Li was in a hurry one day in late 2023. Reports say he was dealing with an emergency, which may have distracted him while driving. And then the worst happened. He struck a woman who was riding an electric bicycle, sending her hurtling to the ground injured. Li scrambled out of his car to check on the woman and apologize. Now he had two emergencies to deal with.

Her response, as she lay there in agony with what would later be determined to be a broken collar bone: "No worries."

gif of someone in a hospital bed saying "no worries"No worries!Giphy

Her kindness and forgiveness (and maybe a little bit of millennial people-pleasing) opened the door for the two to stay in touch after the accident. Li visited the woman in the hospital every day as she recovered, where they struck up a friendship. That friendship quickly turned into more. After just a few weeks, it was actually the woman—broken collarbone and all—who confessed her feelings to Li first. They had really hit it off during those visits. Li was hesitant due to their age gap and, well, the extreme weirdness of how they met, but eventually he gave it a chance, realizing it was kind of rude to turn her down for a date after hitting her with his car and putting her in the hospital.

Less than a year later, she was pregnant, and the couple just tied the knot in February of 2025, bringing their unbelievable love story full circle.

If it sounds like the plot of a movie, it kind of is. A similar premise is at the heart of the 2024 film We Live In Time with Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh. Who says you can't find a Hollywood ending in real life?


The story was shared far and wide on social media where it raised a few eyebrows, and inspired more than a few jokes.

Clever Reddit users were quick to point out that Li may have taken the idea of "hitting on someone" a little too literally.

One user shared that Li's story was similar to one of her own: "This is similar to how my grandparents met. My grandfather was just in the US on vacation. on his way to go back to his country he got into a car accident. He stayed to make sure the woman in the other car was ok. The rest is history."

I think it gives people hope to hear these bizarre and unexpected love stories. The world has been different since COVID. In person connections with other people are more rare. And people are burnt out on dating apps, with usage dipping drastically over the last year or two. I can imagine it feels impossible to find someone if you've tried all the usual avenues and come up empty. So maybe you don't want to go out intentionally running over attractive pedestrians, but if we can take anything away from Li's story, it's that staying open-minded and optimistic can actually pay off sometimes when it comes to love. Congrats to the happy couple! Though, for safety reasons, it's probably best if Li lets his wife drive from now on.

Tom Holland and Zendaya competed on Lip Sync Battle in 2017.

Every once in a while, a celebrity will pull out a surprising talent that hasn't really been showcased in their work, like Jake Gyllenhaal having a lovely singing voice or Steve Martin playing the banjo or Mark Ruffalo being able to ride a unicycle. But few celebrity surprises have delighted fans as much as Tom Holland's unabashed dance talent in his epic Lip Sync Battle performance against Zendaya.

The couple went head-to-head on Lip Sync Battle in 2017, the same year they met and first began dating. With the official announcement of Holland and Zendaya's engagement, fans have been binge-rewatching Holland's number, calling it a pivotal moment in his and Zendaya's relationship. Whether that's true or not, it's definitely a must-see, as the Spider-Man actor's unexpected moves and 100% commitment to the act still has people marveling years later.

After Zendaya held her own with a "24K" Bruno Mars impersonation in the Lip Sync Battle episode, Holland started his off with "Singin' in the Rain." Donning a classic suit and fedora and dancing with an umbrella, he appeared to be going for an ode to Frank Sinatra's original performance. But after about 20 seconds, Holland ducked behind a group of open umbrellas at the back of the stage, a group of backup dancers came out, and the music suddenly changed to Rihanna's "Umbrella."

When Holland burst back onto the stage in fishnet tights, a leotard, and a wig, the whole vibe shifted drastically, and it's safe to say no one expected the performance that was to come. Watch:

The confidence. The commitment. The slapping of the water. The backflip. Holland comes from a theater and dance background, so his stage talents shouldn't come as too much of a shock, but even Zendaya appeared floored by the sheer boldness and how Holland owned that dance number. Since their engagement was announced, some fans have pointed to Zendaya's delighted reaction as the moment she knew he was "the one."

"He owned this performance. And her reaction is so cute."

"He did the mating dance ritual, it was set in stone."

"She killed it with Bruno Mars then he comes out like this. It was insane. They both went all in. Go big or go home. They are perfect for each other."

"For many women, seeing a man be that secure and confident in who he is not be stupidly preoccupied with what others may think of his masculinity is very much a turn on."

"This felt like a man that would do anything to make his woman smile and that my friends, is what we call a keeper."

You can watch the entire Lip Sync Battle, including Zendaya's performance, here:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

People have been enamored with Holland and Zendaya's relationship for years. Despite trying to maintain some privacy in their personal lives, their genuine adoration for each other comes across clearly in the way they speak about one another publicly.

The couple started off as friends during the filming of "Spider-Man: Homecoming," with Zendaya helping Holland navigate his burgeoning fame.

"We are like the best of friends. She's so great and amazing," Holland told People magazine in 2017. "I'm a little worried [about dealing with fame … but] Zendaya is super famous and she's been through this, and I just call her up and say, 'How do I manage being famous?' I'm very glad I have a friend like her."

The two began dating in secret and have attempted to shield their relationship from the pitfalls that come with the public eyes, which isn't easy to do in the age of paparazzi and social media.

""Our relationship is something that we are incredibly protective of and we want to keep as sacred as possible," Holland told The Hollywood Reporter in 2023. "We don't think that we owe it to anyone, it's our thing, and it has nothing to do with our careers."

Fair enough. Fan do enjoy seeing them make each other laugh in interviews together, though, and the engagement news has been met with lots of congratulations and good wishes. Here's to the happy couple—may they continue to delight and surprise one another for years to come.