Calgarians who met during 2013 flood cleanup to get hitched
Danielle Nerman | CBC News | Posted: September 8, 2016 8:03 PM | Last Updated: September 8, 2016
Couple met cleaning up damaged homes in same Calgary neighbourhood
Sometimes good can come from even the worst disaster.
Three years ago, floodwaters left thousands of Calgary houses, apartments and condos in disarray — including the home that firefighter Owen Bonnar was renting.
In the days that followed many Calgarians volunteered to help clean up the mess.
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Yvonne Northover and her friend rolled up their sleeves in the southwest community of Mission.
"At the end of the day when everything was more or less loaded up, we were walking down the street. And the street we chose was the house that Owen lived on," Northover told the Calgary Eyeopener on Thursday.
And that is how their love story began.
From beers to vows
After a long day of hauling soggy furniture and drywall out of his basement Bonnar and his friends decided to crack open a couple of cold ones outside on the lawn.
They saw Northover and her friend walking by and invited them over for a beer. After a bit of socializing Northover invited the entire group out that evening to a pub meetup with her indoor soccer team.
That night Bonnar and Northover got to talking.
Then they started dating.
Then they shacked up — in the same house where they met.
He also popped the question to her in the same spot where their story began.
"Right on the sidewalk here where we met, I got down on one knee and proposed," Bonnar said.
While they're not getting hitched on their lawn, the couple will tie the knot on Saturday at a log cabin which is just a two-minute drive down the road.
With files from the Calgary Eyeopener