Bruce Gustafson and Dianne Johnson-Gustafson on their wedding day.

Image Credit: Contributed

“NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR ONE TRUE LOVE”

VERNON - When Dianne first met Bruce, she thought he had a twin.

She was working at her mom’s store, the Whispering Pines truck stop near Falkland, and he would come in dressed in such vastly different outfits that she thought they were different people.

“He’d come in one day dressed as a biker, and the next in a western shirt and cowboy boots. I wasn’t sure which I liked better, they were both really cute,” Dianne Johnson (now Johnson-Gustafson) says. “We started talking and I realized he was one and the same.”

When Bruce’s job wrapped up at the end of the summer, he went back home to Saskatchewan — but not without telling her “don’t go and get a boyfriend before I get back.”

The following summer, Bruce returned to Vernon and the two twenty-somethings started dating. They lived together for a year-and-a-half before breaking up, a “long story,” Dianne says. Bruce went back to Saskatchewan and they didn’t speak again for nearly 20 years.

But part of Bruce stayed with Dianne the whole time — she got pregnant right around the time they split up.

“I raised our daughter on my own and they didn’t meet for 19 years,” Dianne says.

Over the years, Dianne dated a bit but never married.

“I thought about Bruce every day. All I had to do was look at my daughter,” she says.

Bruce, for his part, knew about the pregnancy but never if it was his child.

“I used to wonder quite a bit,” Bruce says. “There were quite a few times I tried to contact them, but I was leery about it. I didn’t know if Dianne got married or if someone else was the dad…. I didn’t want to intrude.”

Dianne and Bruce in 1994.

Image Credit: Contributed

He moved on, getting married twice and having three kids. But there was always something in the back of his mind drawing him back to Vernon, Dianne, and the child that might be his. 

In 2014, worn out from work and needing a holiday, Bruce booked three days off, left Saskatchewan and headed to Vernon for “a pig roast at the yacht club.” While in town, he  also made a pit stop at the pharmacy Dianne worked at back in the day. 

“I thought maybe I’d just peek in and see if she was still working there. I got some eye drops and stuff and saw her behind the counter,” Bruce says.

He didn’t talk to her, and while she definitely noticed him, Dianne didn’t say anything either.

“I looked up from the till and went ‘oh my god, it’s him.’ I didn’t know what to do,” she says.

Bruce left, and Dianne went on with her day. It wasn’t until a few days later, while sitting at a funeral service, that she decided to contact him.

“I’m sitting there and I’m thinking ‘life is too short,’” Dianne says.

She contacted him on Facebook, asking if he’d like to go for coffee and catch up. No reply. A week later, she sent another message with her cell number. Again, no response. And a couple weeks later, she sent one more saying “whatever happened between us is water under the bridge, it doesn’t matter. I really want you to meet your daughter and a part of me will always love you because you gave me the greatest gift of my life.” Still, nothing.

There was an explanation for Bruce’s silence — he wasn’t getting the messages.

“I was out with some friends and… out of the blue this one lady says ‘do you ever check your second inbox on Facebook?’ I didn’t even know about that,” Bruce says.

The next morning, he checked it and found Dianne’s messages. Immediately, he picked up the phone. Her mom answered.

“I was trimming some trees at my mom’s house and I told her ‘make him wait.’ He made me wait,” Dianne says with a laugh.

Later that night, around 9 p.m., she finally called him back, not realizing it was 11 p.m. his time.

“We chatted for a bit — well, eight hours actually,” she says. “I don’t think there’s a day we haven’t spoken since.”

They picked up right where they left off 19 years earlier.

“We both grew up, but our feelings were still there,” Dianne says.

Bruce met his daughter in October of 2014, and proposed to Dianne shortly after. They were married on June 20, 2015 at O’Keefe Ranch, where Dianne volunteers.

“We kind of did everything backwards,” Dianne says.

For Bruce, who was in a terrible trucking accident several years before reconnecting with Dianne (he lost his left hand) the outcome takes on an even deeper significance.

“After the accident, everyone was telling me there’s a reason you didn’t die. None of the doctors knew how I survived it. All the doctors said the same thing, we have no idea why you’re still here. So everybody was always telling me there’s got to be a reason you’re still here. Well, eventually I ended up meeting my daughter.”

He’s infinitely glad he went to the pharmacy that fateful day.

“I’m not a big advice giver, but if you don’t go and find out, the answer is always going to be no. A lot of times in life, you’ve got to take that step forward and find out whether it’s going to hurt you or not. I think we have to be tough and not afraid of what the outcome is going to be. Whatever is meant to be, will be.”

For Dianne, all the years in between their time together was worth the wait.

“Never give up on your one true love,” she says.

Image Credit: Contributed

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