T-R PHOTO BY NICK BAUR —Local widows Nicholas Carl and Marlyn Klonglan, pictured, have enjoyed an unexpected courtship in recent months.

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, love is in the air for many in the area, and it is certainly true for new local couple Marlys Klonglan and Nicholas Carl, who have found love after loss in an unexpected romance between two widows.

Both longtime Marshalltown residents, the pair were first acquainted with one another at the monthly dances orchestrated by the Marshalltown Senior Citizens Center.

It was here, as Klonglan describes, she happened upon a particularly affable gentleman known to be able to cut quite the rug.

“I lost my husband almost 20 years ago, and I couldn’t stay at home all the time,” Klonglan said. “My daughter said, ‘You need to go up to the Senior Center to see if you can find somebody to dance with.’ When I finally came up here, two weeks before Christmas, I got in here and I asked her if there’s anybody who I could dance with and they pointed me to him.”

In an almost cinematic fashion, the couple took to one another like pieces of a puzzle and danced the night away together.

“We have a lot in common,” Carl said. “She doesn’t drink, she doesn’t smoke, she likes to dance. The first night we met, we went to Perkins after we left (the Senior Citizens Center). We sat there and talked until about 12:30 a.m., and then we went to her house and sat there and talked till 3 a.m.”

Carl and Klonglan sharing in one of their favorite pastimes – dancing, at the Marshalltown Senior Citizens Center on Friday, Feb. 10.

After this night, as Klonglan says, they’ve “been going together ever since” and the two have been catching glances from onlookers as they tear up local dance floors with youthful zeal uncharacteristic of their age.

Yet, for each of the widows, they truly did not anticipate being able to find another partner after their first spouse had passed.

“I had one boss. I don’t need another one,” Carl joked. “Four years ago, when my wife got real bad with diabetes, she said, ‘Find someone that’s compatible with you.’ I said, “There ain’t nobody in the world like that.’… Then she (Klonglan) walked in here a couple of months ago and everything clicked.”

For Klonglan, she shared similar sentiments about the prospects of finding someone suitable to be with at her juncture in life.

“I didn’t think I would because of my age,” Klonglan said. “I thought the only man I would be able to find would want me to take care of him.”

But the fortuitous pairing has proved fruitful for each party, with Klonglan and Carl spending days and nights together since sharing in some of their favorite pastimes like playing cards, doing puzzles, fishing, talking to one another, and of course, dancing.

Still, the fledgling courtship has not been without a bump or two, literally. When Klonglan and Carl attended the Meskwaki Casino’s New Year Eve celebration, a fast-paced song saw Klonglan slip and fall on the dancefloor, landing squarely on the back of her skull.

“I could have cracked my head open,” she said.

But the minor hiccup could not prevent the two from sharing in one of their favorite activities, and Klonglan was quick to hop back out onto the dancefloor with Carl.

“I got up, they checked me out, and I went back out and brought in the New Year,” she said.

While the newfound romance has been a surprising turn of events for the pair, both Klonglan and Carl indicated they see smooth sailing ahead with one another.

“She’s a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful lady,” Carl said “We really enjoy each other’s company.”

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Contact Nick Baur at 641-753-6611 or nbaur@timesrepublican.com.