Coupe de foudre

The French call love at first site  Le Coupe de Foudre

Does it exist?

I think so from many couples I've seen.

Some examples...

A good friend's husband said, he knew the minute he saw her, she was the one. He was in his 30s.

Another friend spotted his beloved at a train station looking into the window of a stamp display. Neither was a collector, but it started a conversation that lasted a lifetime.

One couple reunited after their first marriages ended, but he reported he could hardly wait for high school history class where he sat behind her to be near her.

It happened to my father and stepmom at a country club talent show. Unfortunately, they were married to other people at the time, yet they managed to extricate themselves. Their new marriage worked far better than their first. The left spouses turned out to be happier too.

Three of the couples were together until death did them part many decades later. The third are still reveling in their golden years.

In most of the coupe de foude cases it was the man who felt the lightning strikes. The woman took more time.

I never saw a coupe de foudre couple that I know about come apart.

I don't know the outcome of all coupe de foudres. A client at the agency where I worked after walking through the art department for the first time, told me our art director would be his wife. She was, but after I left the company, I never knew what happened.

Granted the romantic feeling is toned down by real life. There's nothing romantic about seeing your loved one vomit which given enough time will surely happen.  And the months where the outgo outlasts the income. With kids there can be disagreements on discipline and protection. The causes for conflict over the years can be unlimited.

Yet those coup de foudre couples can be seen reaching for each other's hand at certain moments, giving a bouquet of flowers, bringing home some small treat that says the romance is still there.

The coupe de foudre couples I've known are interesting in the sense that each of them has strong personalities. But also there's an overlap in various degrees. The overlap seems unbreakable.

I will never understand how one person can look at another and know, just know, with every ion of their being, that that person is for them. That is without knowing anything about personality, likes, dislikes, goals.

Can there be some chemical reaction? Or were they lovers in an earlier life? I have no idea of the reason(s).

Yet is happens. And that is good.