How to avoid secret spouses and heartbreak this Valentine's Day
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Love makes you do crazy things.
The big picture: There's a woman buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery whose dying wish was to have her ticker buried with her late husband.
- There's another woman buried at Laurel Hill West whose surviving friends were shocked when they showed up to her funeral to find her buried in a white wedding gown.
- Her widowed husband revealed during her eulogy that they had secretly married years ago. That guy, a real gentleman, later remarried — and never bothered to buy his first wife a headstone.
Why it matters: These dueling tales of love and betrayal are among the stories Philly guides Gwen Kaminski and Sarah Hamill tell on their Valentine's Day tours — and they're important lessons to heed to avoid having a dagger thrown through your heart.
Driving the news: Philly lovebirds looking for more traditional love stories are better off on Kaminski's "Til Death Do Us Part" tour on Saturday.
- Those who are a little more jaded will enjoy the twists and turns offered on Hamill's "All Thorns, No Roses" tour on Sunday.
Axios Philly talked to these local love experts and crowdsourced tips from colleagues and readers about how to find — and keep — that powerful antidote to everything.
🫶 Find someone who is as down for you as abolitionist John Brown's wife.
One of Kaminski's favorite love stories is about Hector Tyndale, who endured threats and condemnation for escorting Brown's wife to visit her husband at Harper's Ferry before he was executed.
- "It's easy to become distracted by the little grievances, or small arguments, and lose sight of what matters, what does endure," Kaminski says. "The devotion and companionship of real love."
📷 Find common ground.
Hamill really, really loves cemeteries. Her husband of 38 years … not so much.
Yes, but: Hamill says her husband has leaned into her obsession rather than giving her a hard time about it.
- He's remade himself into an amateur photographer, snapping photos on the couple's trips to cemeteries across the country.
What they're saying: "You want a partner who makes you a better person," Hamill says. "Together, you're stronger than apart."
📲 No one is above the apps.
Axios Tampa Bay's Kathryn Varn tells us she's a newly engaged Hinge believer.
Yes, but: "Don't settle for someone's potential. You need them fully potenched," Axios Richmond's Sabrina Moreno reminds us.
🚽 And for the guys: "Clean your freakin' bathroom" if you're going to invite someone over, Varn says.
💬 Isaac's thought bubble: She's right, fellas. If you're a five, make sure your bathroom's a 10. I won over friends and love interests by having — I was told — the bluest bathroom water this side of the Mississippi.
🌹 2 last stories to go: Our readers found love in the oddest ways.
- 🏥 One woman tells us she ended up at the ER with a deep gash on her hand. She and her sister started chatting up her future father-in-law in the waiting room. He mentioned he had a son. Her sister set them up on a date, and voila, now they're married with a new baby.
- 🍺 Lexie C. met her future husband after he asked her for beer money at a Blink-182 concert. She obliged. Toast to them: They're celebrating their second wedding anniversary on Monday.