'The Sweetest Thing'; Couple Met And Got Engaged At A CTA Bus Stop, So City Gave Them The Bench As An Anniversary Gift
CHICAGO (CBS) -- As you sit on a CTA bench for your next morning commute, you might think of Erica and Terry Kane. The bus stop in Lincoln Park has become a symbol of their love.
"I honestly think it's the single most romantic thing I've ever heard in my life, and it happened to us," Erica said.
To understand the love story surrounding a bus stop, we have to take you back 11 years to when Terry met Erica at the CTA bus stop at the corner of Clark and Armitage.
"I passed the bus stop, and I saw my future wife sitting there. I crossed the street. I was like, 'I gotta find an excuse to talk to this woman.' So I turned around, and I walked back, and I sat down next to her, and we just started chatting," Terry said.
A chance encounter, serendipity, because there was no explanation for either of them to be there that day.
"I never took the bus to events – I was doing an event that night – and he never walked to work, and still hasn't in all of these years, but that day it was meant to be," Erica said.
It was meant to be love, actually; always circling back to a simple bench at a CTA bus stop.
"We met at the bus stop. We got engaged at the bus stop. She told me we were going to have Charlie at the bus stop. So it's very important," Terry said.
Their place became that bench; one that hundreds of people used, until Terry decided he wanted it just for them.
"I was thinking of what we're going to do for our fifth anniversary, what kind of gift, and it was wood; and I was like, 'I wonder if I can get the bench.'"
Multiple phone calls and emails later, someone with the city heard their story and also decided it wasn't a public bench anymore, it belonged to Terry and Erica. So it was removed from the stop, and given to them, no strings attached.
"I really couldn't believe it. It was the sweetest thing anyone's ever done, ever. Maybe in the history of the world," Erica said.
The bench now sits in their yard in south Florida, where the couple recently moved.
"It's such a big piece of who we are. I think it's amazing that our kids are going to sit on it and grow up around it," Erica said.