Windsor-Essex is home to countless love stories and
“meet-cutes.” The thirty-plus crowd might remember meeting
their first loves at Wheels roller rink, hoping anxiously to pair off
hand in hand. Others might have met at school or community
dances, a nervous and sweaty guy working up the courage to tap
a lady on the shoulder and ask her to dance. And many a teen
romance started with flirting at the food court at Devonshire
Mall.
For those who met their loves after high school, it might have
started at an ice rink, or by appreciating the same painting at the
Art Gallery of Windsor. Others might have been gazing at the
Canada Day fireworks over the river or watching the cars circle at
Checker Flag when Cupid’s arrow found its mark.
In a time when more and more couples are searching for love
online, or in the local clubs, it’s worth remembering that some of
the best love stories are those of people who simply started out
being in the same place at the same time. Like Larry and Sylvia
Dalbello of Kingsville. Married 23 years, they met in their church
band, where Sylvia sang and Larry played guitar.
Music continued to be a factor in their ongoing love story.
They’d been married, and Larry was working as a cabinetmaker
when he decided to answer his true calling to be a luthier, a
person who makes guitars. He also wanted to make a move from
Harrow to Kingsville.
“I thought she would say I was completely out of my mind
and nuts,” says Larry. “When I first said, ‘I don’t want to build
cabinets anymore. I want to build guitars...and I want to sell the
house and move to Kingsville...let’s change it all and basically
start over from the beginning.’” But Larry discovered what he’s
come to see as one of Sylvia’s best traits – how understanding
she is. “And she said, ‘Yeah,okay.’ I was kind of in shock, really,
that she would give up a lot more than any other woman would,
all for my vanity.”
Larry now spends approximately six to eight hours a day, a
few days a week, working on his guitars, and believes most
women wouldn’t care for that too much. But Sylvia, to him, is
someone who puts others before herself. One of the ways he’s
shown his appreciation is his attempt to win tickets to see Sarah
McLachlan. Contestants were asked to write essays about who in
their lives makes them “shine on.” Larry wrote about his wife
and won the tickets.
“I wrote about how she lets me go out late at night to shows,
to see guitars, and basically puts up with all that crap so that I
can shine on in what I’m doing, and how, for once, I’d like her to
have a moment where she gets to be in the spotlight.”
Both Dalbellos agree that in a hectic life, it’s the simple
things that matter to them. Larry continues to make guitars and
has further celebrated their love story by naming a line of guitars
after his Sylvia.
While proximity can be the start of a love story, it also takes
Top to bottom:
Many local love stories began in a
school hallway
Rick Dawes and Hailey Trealout share a
love of horseback riding
Signs of love are everywhere in
Windsor-Essex
February 2015 - The HUB 11