“Distance is to love like wind is to fire… it extinguishes the small and kindles the great!”

Our Long Distance Relationship Story

Before Frank and I met, we were freshman college students. He was going to school in New York, and I was going to school in Maine. That school year, in May of 2005, Frank and I were introduced to each other by a mutual friend. He was a childhood friend of Frank’s and a new friend I had made that year in college. We clicked instantly – we started talking to each other via email and AOL instant messenger (AIM) on a daily basis and we’d often find ourselves still absorbed in conversation in the early hours of the morning. We had become best friends. We even got to meet in person a couple times.

Several months into our newfound friendship, Frank revealed his feelings to me. At the time I was a busy college student and beginning a long distance romance was the furthest thing from my mind. I didn’t want to hurt our friendship if it didn’t work out. We decided to just continue on being the best of friends.

But it wasn’t long… about 3 months later, I started thinking about what Frank had said, and realized I was feeling the same way about him. I was nervous about the long distance aspect, but didn’t want to always wonder “what if”?

So long story short, we made the decision to go from “friends” to “couple.”

We soon found out how hard being in a long distance relationship was. It wasn’t easy and we went through a lot of ups and downs. We learned a lot about ourselves and each other.

We saw each other whenever we had the time and money – we took advantage of every school break we could. I would either take a Greyhound Bus to see him in New York (or to Massachusetts if when he was home for the summer), or he would drive in his 1989 Buick to come see me in Maine. The time we had together never felt long enough – I was always in tears when we had to say goodbye. Sometimes it would be a few months before our next visit – other times we simply didn’t know when we would be able to see each other again.

In 2008, while we were still long distance, I created Loving From A Distance. In the beginning, it was a simple blog and a place for me to create a list of things for long distance couples to do, as we did them ourselves. We’d find these neat ideas and I wanted to share them with other people who were also in long distance relationships. Through this site we met so many other long distance couples, which led us to create LFAD’s long distance relationship forum.

Finally in 2011, things fell into place and we were able to close the distance after 5 and half years of being in a long distance relationship. We decided to settle down in Maine and got married in 2013.

Deciding to take the leap into a long distance relationship was the best thing we have ever done. We would do it all again in a heartbeat.

May 2005

Met each other and soon became the best of friends.
April 2006

Decided to take the leap to be more than friends and started our long distance relationship.
July 2011

Closed the distance and moved into our first apartment.
April 2012

Got engaged on our dating anniversary.
June 2013

Got married!
August 2015

Had a baby! 🙂
March 2017

Had baby #2!
Jan 2019

Had baby #3!

Publications & Media

Michelle and Frank are the authors of The Long Distance Relationship Workbook and Making Your Long Distance Relationship Work. They were featured in the February 2011 issue of LUX Woman Magazine (Portugal) and the October 2010 issue of Seventeen Magazine (Singapore).

About Loving From A Distance

We created Loving From A Distance to support couples in long distance relationships (that’s you!). We offer relationship advice (including advice from our expert Miss U), inspirational long distance quotes, motivational stories, and activities & ideas that bring you closer despite being apart.

Frank and I had people in our lives that tried to fill our heads with doubts about our relationship – they didn’t believe long distance relationships could work. We couldn’t talk about our relationship with some people because they didn’t take our relationship seriously. We didn’t have everyone’s support, and we realized we weren’t alone – many of the people who have contacted us via the site or email, have shared with us their similar experiences. This, in part, inspired us to create the LFAD forum. Our forum connects people who are in LDRs – building friendships between people who can understand and support each other.

Since 2009 we have offered long distance relationship bracelets on our site with the quote “Love knows no distance.” They are worn by thousands of long distance couples around the world as a reminder to stay strong while apart from their partner and as a constant physical reminder that their love will one day overcome the distance.

We started making engraved couples wallet cards in 2018, which can be personalized names and a sweet message – a way for couples to carry their heart with them wherever they go.