Sarah Miller and Jon Rathbone found romance the last place most people would ever look: at a rain-soaked CTA bus stop

07/16/07
Chicago Sun-Times

Kinda shy grad student meets a handsome Brit while waiting for a CTA bus, one week before she moves to Washington, D.C., and he goes back to England.

(Of course, the rain is pouring that day, so she offers to let him share her umbrella as they board the bus.)

Then a great first date leads to a long-distance relationship that, remarkably, doesn't end in tears.

No, that isn't the plot for the next Julia Roberts-Hugh Grant romantic comedy.

It's how Sarah Miller and Jon Rathbone, now engaged and living in Lincoln Park, found love on public transit.

Miller was waiting for a No. 22 Clark bus at Clark and LaSalle when Rathbone dashed into the bus shelter to escape the rain.

She was on her way to meet her brother at a Cubs game. He was taking the bus home from work, something he normally didn't do.

The pair struck up a conversation after Miller assured Rathbone that he wasn't waiting at the wrong stop.

"For some reason, the sign didn't say that the 22 stops there," Miller said. "We started talking, and then we continued talking on the bus," even though it was clear other riders were listening in on the exchange.

Miller and Rathbone spent their last four days in Chicago together. Then they kept in touch via e-mail for a year, exchanging almost 2,000 messages during that time, Miller said.

During a trip to the South of France, the couple decided to move back to Chicago together.

Last Sunday, they got engaged at the bus stop where they'd met two years earlier.

"We were going to meet at the History Museum to go to the swan boats at the zoo," Miller said. "On the way, we stopped at the bus stop. [Then] he was down on one knee."

Rathbone, who designed the engagement ring he gave Miller, says he feels pretty lucky to have met his fiancee the way he did.

"It's pretty crazy, considering any one of those little things that made us meet at the bus stop could have changed," he said.

For their wedding next year, Miller said they might try to rent out a CTA bus for part of the reception.

A Decent Proposal

A California-based jeweler wants Blue Line riders who met on the L to pop the question ... at a train stop.

Robbins Bros. is offering free proposal advice and $2,500 toward a ring purchase to the guy or girl who submits the best meeting story to whatwillyousay.com/proposal. Entries are limited to 200 words.

The winning couple, to be chosen within the next 3 to 4 weeks, has to get engaged on the Blue Line.

Robbins Bros. spokeswoman Hillary DeLong said the Blue Line was picked for the company's promotional gimmick because "it goes to O'Hare and the Loop and really typifies the Chicago market."

The jeweler is trying to generate some buzz around the opening of its first three stores in the Chicago area later this year.

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