Finding Love at a Bus Stop
Thursday, October 23, 2008 5:14 PM
Doris Etienne Jackson is planning to marry the love of her life in four weeks and two days.
She met him at a downtown METRO bus stop.
That autumn morning four years ago, she was sitting at the METRO stop on Franklin Street, waiting to transfer to the 137. It was 5:30 in the morning and Doris customarily had left her hair in rollers, covered by a scarf. She wore no makeup.
Across the street, George Jackson, a truck driver, noticed Doris sitting there in the early-morning darkness. "I used to ride the train across the street. I would cross the street. She would be sitting at that bus stop by herself with strange people around her," recalls George, who said his initial interest was to make sure Doris was unharmed.
"We met at that bus stop for a year," says Doris, a Wal-Mart cashier. "He started talking first because I would have my (devotional) book and saying my prayers in the morning. He just came and started talking to me, being a protector. He would always bring me sandwiches. He was trying to impress me."
Finally, after two months of bus stop conversation, George mustered the courage to ask her out for coffee.
"I didn't think I'd find love," says Doris, two weeks shy of her 63rd birthday. "I have a girlfriend who teases me. She would pick me up and say, ‘How did you get your man?' I say, ‘You got the Cadillac, and I meet people on METRO.' She always wants to find a boyfriend. I told her you have to start riding METRO."
George, who has been taking public transit since 1965, says when he and Doris bought their house, he made sure it was within walking distance of a METRO bus stop, in case something happens to their vehicles they now own.
"I let my buddies know I met the woman I'm going to marry at a bus stop. That's kind of amazing," says George, 56. This is the first marriage for both.
What does he think of METRO?
"I think it's the best thing that ever happened to this city - especially since you put that train in there. It's a good hook-up," says George, happy his train-to-bus transfers unfolded into a life-changing event.