- February 13, 2026
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There isn't any one way of finding love.
The factors that bring couples together can range from a common interests in a dog breed, to a chance connection on a dating app, to the ability to support one another through hardships.
As Valentine's Day approaches, here are some snapshots of love stories in the community.
It was the love of greyhounds that brought Danni and Steven Solowski together.
However, that was after, without remembering, they shared a moment in a class photo during law school orientation at the University of Georgia in 2013.
Of about 200 class members, Danni and Steven happened to be standing together at the front of the picture. Steven remembers that they briefly spoke and that she may have laughed, although afterwards, they didn't talk for months or share any classes.
Something else they had in common was that Steven had adopted a rescue greyhound, Anubis, from Southeastern Greyhound Adoption, while Danni had grown up with a greyhound.
“(Anubis) was kind of like our matchmaker,” Danni said.
During their second year of law school, they became engaged, after which point they realized they had known each other for longer than they had thought, when they saw the photo.
At their wedding in 2016, Anubis was involved, wearing a tuxedo collar and tuxedo cuffs for his legs, and with their 10-year anniversary coming this November, Danni said they continue to love the breed.
Although Anubis died about two years ago, the couple currently has two greyhounds, Sammy and Royale, who both come from Gold Coast Greyhound adoption.
Danni said it's interesting for them to sense the passage of time as their dogs grow and change.
“It's been really good, and it's interesting thinking about how our greyhound brought us together,” she said.
Alaina Shapiro and Len Booth had both been through breakups and weren't sure they were ready to date again.
“I had been on a reality dating TV show," said Shapiro, who says she appeared on the TV show "Blind Date" on Bravo. "I've been speed dating, match-making, line dating, like everything, and I couldn't find the one guy that was for me."
She says the show got her name because she applied for "Married at First Sight," although she realized she couldn't marry someone without knowing them.
Then the first time she and Booth were supposed to meet, he canceled.
“I got cold feet because I thought I wasn't ready, because I just got out of a relationship and I wasn't having too much success,” he said.
Luckily, the two kept the conversation going, and the week after, they say they couldn't help but meet, even if just to become friends.
On Monday night, they attended a trivia night at Good Liquid Brewing Co., placing fourth, before heading out to enjoy tacos on Taco Tuesday night, and putt-putt on Wednesday night.
"We've pretty much been inseparable ever since, six months later," she said. They are now raising a cat named Sweetie.
She describes them as "kind of opposites, but not really," with her being more high-energy and him being calmer, and both of them having the chance to "more than anything, laugh so much, and about everything."
“He's the nicest guy I've ever met, ever,” Shapiro said. “My friends said I would get bored with a nice guy. Heck no. I highly recommend a nice guy.”
“I like how she's how she’s connected with my family, which is very important to me,” Booth said. “I’m very family oriented. She just fits right in. She's very outgoing and has an energy about her, and it adds a lot to my life.”
Ernie Mack was attending a service at Bethlehem Bible Church, when the minister asked first-time visitors to stand.
A man in the room stood up, saying he had just moved from Connecticut and knew only one person there.
Yet the next Sunday, when the call came for first time visitors, the same person stood up again, perplexing Mack. It continued again and again, until finally she decided to do something.
“I said, ‘Oh, something's wrong with him. I'm going to find out what his problem is,'" she said.
She walked over and asked if he was going to stand up next Sunday also.
“I met her, and she kept staring at me. 'What is this all about?'” Fredric Douglas Binion said.
What she didn't know at the time, 14 years ago, was that Binion was coming away from a traumatic experience, having lost his wife to cancer.
“I sold all of my property in Connecticut, and I left my daughter and my granddaughter and my friends and my church family, my fraternity. I’m very involved,” he said.
The next Sunday, he joined the church, the oldest African American church in Sarasota.
“It had what I needed," he said. "I’m a singer, among many things, so I wanted to be in the choir, and I wanted to go to Bible study and stuff like that to get me back, connected, with life, real life."
About two Sundays after that, they saw each other in the parking lot.
"He says, 'Oh, I'm going over to the soul food restaurant and get me some dinner.' I said, 'I've been here over a year. What soul food restaurant? I don't know anything about a soul food restaurant,'" Ernie said.
They visited the restaurant on Tuttle Road and began attending different events at the church together.
“Now this bond, this love affair, is developing," Binion said. "First of all, you have to be friends before you can be lovers."
"He said, 'Let’s do this.’ I said, ‘Do what?’ ‘You be my girlfriend," Mack said.
She became convinced he had feelings for her after he accompanied her to the hospital when she had some health issues, even though it wasn't a place he wanted to be, for his wife died in a hospital.
Shortly afterwards, she ended up helping him with the drinking issues he had been having after his experiences.
“Here I am again with my fraternity brothers in my drunken state, and she said to me, 'You've got to stop this,'” he said.
Over the years, they have become closer. They have met each other's families and been there for each other for the death of many loved ones, although they ultimately decided not to get married in a legal sense.
But they did follow another tradition.
Historically, enslaved Africans would perform a wedding ceremony by placing a broom on the ground and jumping over it, a tradition that is still practiced today at many African American weddings.
Binion continues to accompany Ernie to the hospital, amid recent health issues.
"Every time she goes to the hospital or anything happens to her, I sing, ‘You are my sunshine, my only sunshine,'" he said.
Mack says life is short, and no one should be unhappy.
“If you can't be happy with me, guess what? Gotta go," she said.
