Some love stories begin with chance encounters at cafés or across crowded rooms. Dana and Lyle Ford’s story began instead in a meeting about helping others – inside Christ the King Ukrainian Church, repurposed into something altogether unexpected, The Valiant Theatre. The space itself felt like a contradiction: punk-inflected murals, statues softened by time, and neon light cutting through centuries of ritual. Dana, raised in a Catholic tradition, remembers the shock of it – the dissonance of familiarity and reinvention. Lyle remembers something else entirely. He remembers seeing Dana and knowing, almost instantly, that she was someone who mattered. Someone who would make a difference...

I pulled into an N1 station to call my host from the previous night. I’d never actually met her, just knew her as a voice on the phone. My place was at the top of a long driveway that wound through the rocks and sheep pasture. I’d had the whole house to myself, which suited me just fine. But now, it looked more and more like I’d be spending another night there. The conditions were worsening, and with the wind and blowing snow it looked very much like a blizzard was forming. My destination was Sauðarkrókur, way up north in the middle of horse country...

I pulled into an N1 station to call my host from the previous night. I’d never actually met her, just knew her as a voice on the phone. My place was at the top of a long driveway that wound through the rocks and sheep pasture. I’d had the whole house to myself, which suited me just fine. But now, it looked more and more like I’d be spending another night there. The conditions were worsening, and with the wind and blowing snow it looked very much like a blizzard was forming. My destination was Sauðarkrókur, way up north in the middle of horse country...