{"id":140270,"date":"2019-02-13T09:36:56","date_gmt":"2019-02-13T15:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metrostlouis.org\/?p=140270"},"modified":"2024-02-29T09:57:15","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T15:57:15","slug":"valentine-passenger-profile-toya-elliott","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metrostlouis.org\/nextstop\/valentine-passenger-profile-toya-elliott\/","title":{"rendered":"Valentine Passenger Profile: Toya & Elliott"},"content":{"rendered":"

In celebration of Valentine\u2019s Day, we will be sharing a special story of a couple who met while riding Metro. This week\u2019s Passenger Profile features two transit lovebirds,Toya and Elliott.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"couple<\/a><\/p>\n

When Toya boarded a Red Line train at the College MetroLink Station, she wasn\u2019t looking for love. But that\u2019s not how life works, sometimes love finds us when we least expect it. And, that\u2019s exactly what happened in the summer of 2007.<\/p>\n

Toya was taking summer classes at Southwestern Illinois College and there was Elliott sitting in her biology class. Toya and Elliott went to the same junior high school, but they hadn\u2019t known each other then.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognized each other and said hi and bye,\u201d Toya said.<\/p>\n

Fast forward a year later, in the summer of 2008, and Toya was leaving class to catch the train at the College MetroLink Station. Elliott was headed that way too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe boarded the same train, he sat in the seat behind me and started making small talk,\u201d Toya said. \u201cI knew he would ask for my number and I actually had planned on giving him the wrong one. I\u2019m so glad I didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

After that initial interaction, the two would soon have their first date. They spent it at a park in Fairview Heights.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked about common values and discovered our lives were similar,\u201d she said. \u201cWe really connected.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the couple definitely got closer that summer, Elliott would eventually have to leave Illinois and Toya. Elliott was continuing his education at Tennessee State University in Nashville.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had to go back to Nashville,\u201d Toya said. \u201cWe knew we could make a long-distance relationship work.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was now the summer of 2009, and Toya and Elliott were once again reunited back in Illinois. On this particular day, they were headed to the V.P. Fair in downtown St. Louis. They boarded MetroLink at the Fairview Heights MetroLink Station to get to the festivities. They visited a few booths, enjoyed a few snacks and settled in for the fireworks. It was at that moment, Elliott got on one knee and proposed. Was Toya shocked? Not quite.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually wasn\u2019t surprised it happened that night,\u201d Toya said. \u201cWhen we boarded the train, I saw there was an indentation in his pant pocket that resembled a ring box. I knew what it was and had to wait patiently all day until it happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a brief time in Nashville, the couple would eventually make St. Clair County their home. The couple celebrated the birth of their daughter \u2013 Elayah \u2013 in June 2014, and in February 2017, the family would grow considerably as Toya would give birth to triplet boys – Troy, Davis and Elliott.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m so grateful for that train ride,\u201d Toya said. \u201cIt was the first of many journeys together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Happy<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In celebration of Valentine\u2019s Day, we will be sharing a special story of a couple who met while riding Metro. This week\u2019s Passenger Profile features two transit lovebirds,Toya and Elliott.\u00a0 When Toya boarded a Red Line train at the College MetroLink Station, she wasn\u2019t looking for love. But that\u2019s not how life works, sometimes love […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1427],"class_list":["post-140270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-metro-lifestyle","tag-valentines-day"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"featured_media_urls":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metrostlouis.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metrostlouis.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metrostlouis.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metrostlouis.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metrostlouis.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.metrostlouis.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140270\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metrostlouis.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metrostlouis.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metrostlouis.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}