YSJ Love Stories 2024

by Jessica Warburton-White · February 14, 2024

Every Valentine’s Day, we share some of the love stories from our alumni community. From a chance blind date, to meeting in the middle after a long distance relationship, this year we’re excited to share a range of alumni love stories! This year, we’re also honoured to share love stories about alumni shared by their children.

Blind date for the end of term ball

Shared by Margaret Plunkett, nee Shipman. Margaret studied at Ripon College, completing her course in 1965.

The end of term ball was held at Ripon Racecourse in 1963. We were a group of 4 friends, all with boyfriends for the evening. Unfortunately my boyfriend, a Johnsman, had to go home early as he had a holiday job. So I didn’t have a partner! One friend asked her boyfriend to bring someone for me!

My blind date turned out to be a handsome local farmer but he was late because he had a cow calving -I later learned that it was not always true! We got on well and arranged to meet the next day. He came down the long drive at college and my heart sank because sitting next to him was a beautiful toddler. I thought “Oh no! He’s married, how do I get out of this one?”. It turned out that it was his nephew who had been staying overnight at the farm and was being taken home, phew! We went to Masham for an ice cream and have been together ever since.

We have been married for nearly 58 years, have a son and a daughter. We still live at the same farm, though not farming now after losing a lot of land for Ripon by-pass.

A colour photo of the old Ripon College building taken in 2023.

A meeting at Musical Production Society

Shared by Hannah Shaw. Hannah studied at York St John University, graduating in 2022.

My wife and I attended YSJ and we met in the Musical Production Society in 2017 and became really great friends before finally dating in 2019. My wife’s name is Jay Shaw (they/them), they studied Media Production: Film & TV for their undergraduate degree and then completed a Masters in Theatre Performance. I studied music for my undergraduate degree, and we both had a keen interest in musical theatre! Jay was already in their second year when I started my first year of university and they were a part of the Musical Production Society when I decided to join.

As I was in the middle of relocating to York, I couldn’t make the first social of the year where the first years typically get to mingle with the rest of the society. So, the first time we ever met was during my audition for the Showcase as they were there with the society chair at the time in the audition waiting room. These were the first people I met from the society and I felt so welcomed and at ease (which was super helpful as auditions can be nerve-wracking).

This is actually one of our favourite memories of being at YSJ. Another of mine is when I was part of Jay’s final project for their Film & TV degree where I acted in one of their lead roles and they used my house to film! It was a packed week, but a lot of fun. They also helped me out during one of my performance modules too where we wrote and performed a song together – myself on vocals and my partner on guitar and vocals as well!

We got married in June 2023! YSJ was definitely responsible for bringing us together and we’re looking forward to many many years of happiness together.

Hannah on her wedding day with her wife. They are smiling at one another, looking into each other's eyes. Both of them are holding large, floral bouquets and are wearing white. They are stood in a lush, green area with lots of trees around.

From long distance to no distance

Shared by Melissa Hoggarth. Melissa studied at York St John University, graduating from her undergraduate degree in 2020 and her postgraduate degree in 2023.

My boyfriend, Harrison, and I were long distance. By this I mean, we used to live over 300 miles away from each other. I was on the south coast, and he was up north. When it was my time to start university, I knew that I wanted to move up north to be closer to him and it just so happened that YSJ was the perfect match for me. It also meant I was now only 40 miles away from him.

In my first year of university, Harrison decided to take the plunge and start university too. It just so happened that he was also offered a place at YSJ! We had gone from being over 300 miles away from each other to about to be living and studying together in our favourite city, York.

What’s more, Harrison proposed to me in my room at City Residence!

Last year we married in this wonderful city. There was no other place that felt right as York and YSJ had been such a big part of our love story. We have also recently welcomed our little son into the world, who attended my Master’s degree graduation last November at 3 months old! York will forever be a special place to us and York St John gave us the magical opportunity to be together after such a long distance.

Melissa and her husband walk towards the camera on their wedding day. Melissia is wearing a wedding dress and holding a light floral bouquet. Behind them is the front of York St John's original entrance.

Melissa smiles as the camera in her graduation hat and gown, holding her newborn.

A College romance

Shared by Andy, the son of two of our alumni.

My Dad (Tom Mellor) and Mum (Margaret Pitts) attended York and Ripon respectively between 1957 and 1959. Mum would organise the dances for the ladies at Ripon and one day decided to organise one with the men at St Johns. The dance was in what my dad thinks is now the chapel. Their eyes met and there began a relationship which spanned 65 years. Dad only attended St John then because he had to do military service between 55 and 57, so might not have met Mum had that not been the case!!

A black and white photo of Tom and Margaret. Margaret is sat on Tom's knee, who is sitting in an armchair. Tom wears a dark suit. Margaret is in a light top and floral, pattern skirt.

Tom and Margaret pose together before a formal occasion. Tom is wearing a tux, including a bow tie. Margaret is wearing a midi-length dress.

Tom and Margaret look at the camera as they pose. Tom is seated on a chair with Margaret position slightly lower, perhaps on a lower seat. They are dressed more casually.

On leaving college, Mum and Dad went straight into the classroom. They both ended up teaching and leading in Special Schools. Dad becoming a head in Lancashire and Mum a Deputy in Blackpool. Both had distinguished careers in special education and both remember Ripon and York fondly as the place where their teaching skills were honed and where they met their life long partners.

Mum and Dad got married in 1961 and were married for 62 ½ years. They had three children, including me. All of us trained to teach, and the youngest of us trained at Ripon too! 65 years after my Dad left St John’s, my daughter has just started her love affair with York St John, studying physiotherapy!

Sadly, Mum passed away on New Year’s Eve 2023. But at her funeral much mention was made of their shared time at Ripon and St John’s. Dad talked about Mum sneaking into his room for fruit and cream together which seemed to be the height of illicit behaviour!

Tom and Margaret stand together, posing for the camera. They are both wearing a sand/stone colour - Tom in a suit and Margaret in a dress. Tom also wears a yellow tie, and Margaret a blue padded jacket. Behind them is the brick side and lare windows of Temple Hall.

From York St John, with love

Shared by Jools, the child of one of our alumni.

This isn’t quite a love story made in York St John, but it did feature in the one between Dennis Burton and Sally Wilson. From Altofts, Dad was the first of his pit family to go to uni, and his parents worked hard to ensure he could. They were so very proud of him, and he put his all into taking whatever uni life could throw at him.

The story begins with one of my Dad’s old girlfriends having an American pen-pal. Dad asked if she could get him one too, and so began our family’s Greatest Love Story Ever Told!

I could tell you so much about Dad’s stories of university, the digs he told me about, his escapades, how he funded his car, etc. His very best friend who he met whilst with you, Professor Ivan Reid, has also been part of our family forever – I had the privilege of once attending one of his lectures at York St John.

However, the Love Story is that whilst Dad was with you, he and my American Mum (who was in Nurses Training in the States) continued writing back and forth, sending flurries of letters, pictures, tape recordings, and facts about themselves, their lives, and their passion for music and creativity. One of the things Dad sent to Mother was a hand-drawn map of campus so she would understand where he was living and learning.

A hand-drawn, to scale map of the St John campus. Drawn by Dennis it includes the quad, various proposed buildings and some of the building uses. The map has a lot of green space, and a small key to one side.

A photo of the front of a play bill from December 1968. The play was called SCROOGE. At the top of the Bill is a handwritten note: To my friend Sally.

Dad loved York with all his heart, and loved his time at York St John, which he attended between 1960 and 1963. Under the tutelage of Percy Wenham (whom he drove to digs in his own car), he expanded his deep love for archaeology whilst training to be a music teacher. At the same time, his growing relationship with Mother blossomed. Dad and Mother’s education grew just as fruitfully as their love did, and York St John provided a rich ground for a young man to provide his one-day-to-be wife with a showcase for his passions, his joys and his ability to share those things with any who would listen – like my mother. Their eventual marriage in April 1970 even featured in a newspaper article at the time, such was the idyll of their romance between a Yorkshire lad and a Kentucky gal.

A photo of Dennis and Sally soon after their wedding, taken from a newspaper. In the photo they are posed in front of a tape player, listening to a recording of their wedding. Dennis is wearing a smart looking suit and tie and wears glasses. Sally is wearing a dress with a wide, statement collar. They are both smiling. Below the picture is the following caption: Mr and Mrs Dennis Burton, who were recently married in the United States, listen to a tape-recording of their wedding at their home in Bramhope.

Beneath this is the article title: Pen friends wed.

My Dad was a very private man, and so when he died in 2001, their many letters were buried in a layer between their coffins. Today, their Love Story continues to be a big part of our family lore, and York St John remains a very special place to me, because of what it meant to Dad.

I know that he would be so very proud to know that York St John continues to educate and embrace such creativities as he loved, so that other folk get a solid grounding to thrive in a challenging world, just as he did.

“I had to see her again…”

Shared by Chris, who graduated from the College of Ripon and York St John in 1989.

I studied at St. John’s in the Department of Occupational Therapy, graduated in 1989, and met the amazing Angelique Wright in January of 1987 – her second day on campus as an exchange student from Keene State College in New Hampshire.

I had no interest in living in the U.S. and we both agreed that trying to sustain a long-term relationship with both of us a world apart, in separate colleges, after she returned would be difficult.

After a year of sadness, I called her from a phone box outside a chip shop in York, and said I had to see her again… and that no-one else could make me feel as good. She came back for a few months, then I followed her to the U.S.A. I did my last elective fieldwork in New Hampshire, and that was that.We eloped in October of 1989 so I could get a green card, then made it all legit with family and friends the following year.

We have been together through thick and thin, and we’re still best mates, now with 2 boys; William (27) and James who’ll be 23 on Valentines Day! I have practiced OT since graduating and Angie is a Spanish teacher. We live in upstate NY, a far cry from residency on Lower Walker with evenings in the union bar or ‘The Crush’ … and we wouldn’t change anything.

York has a lot to answer for: Love is the only thing.