Most people consider themselves lucky to find their true love once.  For General Hospital’s Kate and Sonny, that once-in-a-lifetime love came around twice.  From the streets of Bensonhurst to the docks of Port Charles, this is a magical love story that spans more than two decades.  It’s a love story that reminds us that anything is possible, that although fate determines who comes into our lives, it is our hearts that determine who stays.  It’s not just who Kate and Sonny are today, but who they were all those years ago.  It’s the way the spark of this couple’s teenage love blossomed into a brightly burning flame of commitment, passion, and devotion to each other.  Bensonhurst’s Michael and Connie evolved into Port Charles’ Sonny and Kate – proof that in a world where so many things change, others remain exactly the same.

As teenagers, Michael and Connie were drawn to each other.  Some would say they were polar opposites – some others would say that opposites attract.  Connie Falconeri was the model student, the girl devoted to her schoolwork and involved in extracurricular activities.  Michael Corinthos Jr. was the mysterious, rebellious boy who had had a difficult childhood, the boy who could charm all the girls with just a flash of his dimples.  After going out with Connie’s cousin Olivia, Michael realized it was Connie he wanted to be with.  It was Connie who intrigued him, Connie who inspired him and made him want to be the best he could be.  With dimples on full display and confidence in his voice, he asked out the girl who was so different from the others, the girl who was giddy with excitement as she ran home after accepting his invitation to dinner.  Ignoring her friends and cousins, who cautioned her that Michael would break her heart, Connie followed her instincts instead, enthusiasm and excitement coursing through her veins as she prepared for her date.

The rest, as they say, is history.  Michael and Connie were the perfect complement to each other.  Arcade games at Coney Island, afternoons spent walking along the water’s edge, nights sitting under the boardwalk … these became the norm for the teenage sweethearts.  Connie was drawn to her boyfriend like metal to a magnet, even sneaking off to see him when she told her parents she was studying at a friend’s house.  Michael inspired a spark in her, an adventurous side that she perhaps hadn’t even known she had.  She was a calming influence on him, supportive, encouraging, and optimistic in the face of all the difficulties thrown his way.  She made it clear that she wanted the very best for him, always and forever.  They were the perfect balance; they were each other’s first love.

Their friends predicted they’d be together forever – they even teased them about what they would be like as a married couple one day in the future.  But for Connie and Michael, the road to their life together took a detour along the way.  Connie may have been a small town girl, but she had big dreams … dreams of working at a highly respected, high gloss, high glamour fashion magazine headquartered against the sparkling lights of Manhattan.  Connie wanted to be a success and she wanted her dreams of being an editor-in-chief of a fashion magazine to come true … and she felt like she couldn’t accomplish those goals if she remained in Bensonhurst.  Torn between the boy she loved and the career she dreamed of, Connie made the incredibly difficult decision not to run away with Michael, as they had planned.  Instead, she ran away.  Changing her name to Kate Howard, she attended Princeton University on a full scholarship before moving to New York and beginning work as an editorial assistant at Couture, a highly successful and influential fashion magazine.  Michael – going by Sonny now – continued on a career path that began when he started to work for organized crime leader Joe Scully.

Fast forward twenty years.  After years of hard work and dedication, Kate has become the editor-in-chief of Couture.  She’s one of the most influential and successful women in the fashion and publishing industries, admired and respected worldwide.  Sonny has worked his way up the ladder of success in his career choice over the years, as well.  He now has his own business and has become one of the most powerful men on the east coast, a man whose influence and power extends well beyond New York.  He has sacrificed a great deal to get where he is, and everyone who knows him knows it.  The same is true for Kate.  She has devoted her life to her magazine – in essence, it has become her family as she sacrificed her personal life for her professional one.  Although her life is busy and full, she’s lonely – perhaps lonelier than she even realized or wanted to admit.  But for both her and Sonny, that was all about to change.

It was a warm May night when both Sonny and Kate learned a very important lesson – that fate is real and that your first love can turn into your forever love.  When Kate’s limo broke down, it could have been anywhere – but it wasn’t.  It was in Port Charles, in front of the coffee shop Sonny owned.  Striding into his office – and back into his life – Kate made it clear that she needed to use the phone for an important business call.  It was during this call that Sonny realized Kate Howard was actually Connie Falconeri, the girl who had left his life twenty years ago but had always remained in his heart.  Kate tried to steel herself against this revelation at first, doing her best to adopt the strong, businesslike persona she had become so good at portraying over the years.  But Sonny was able to break through and get her to admit the truth – just as he would be the one to break through the walls Kate had built around her heart since she had run away from him two decades earlier.

Kate was slow to let those walls down, but Sonny persisted.  Reminiscing about their teenage romance and talking with Kate not only about who they were, but who they could be, Sonny brought out a side to her that even she hadn’t realized existed anymore.  What began as a playful flirtation between the two soon blossomed into something much more as the couple fell in love all over again – a love that remained in their hearts for all the years they were apart, a love that was even stronger now than it was two decades earlier when they were teenagers in Bensonhurst.

Supporting each other through trials and tribulations, both literal and figurative, Kate and Sonny realized that they were exactly what each other needed – not just as teenagers, but also as adults.  They had each grown and changed since their days in Bensonhurst, and so had their love.  It had grown into something even deeper, something even more lasting and even more timeless.  That made it all the more poignant when, at the Black and White Ball, the couple professed their love for each other, tears in their eyes as they voiced the feelings flowing from their hearts.  It wasn’t an easy for road for Sonny and Kate, to be sure.  From their declarations of love onward, they continued to face obstacle after obstacle – but they overcame them all and emerged stronger, both individually and together, than ever before.

Wanting nothing more than to make Kate his wife, Sonny proposed to her in a moment that was both heartfelt and beautiful.  With tears in her eyes, Kate accepted, marveling at the power of fate and how it had brought her and Sonny back together.  Excitement, joy, and love abounded for the couple as Kate set about planning their wedding, both she and Sonny wrapped up in each other and the all-encompassing, timeless love they shared.  Although a heartless plan by Anthony Zacchara left Kate shot at the altar before she and Sonny could pledge their lives to each other, the love the couple felt for each other was still evident as Sonny pleaded with his bride to hold on and to make it through.  Indeed she did … and even though her life and Sonny’s eventually moved in different directions, one thing has remained the same.  The connection between the two is evident whenever they’re together – the bond is still there, the spark is still there, and, perhaps most important not only now, but for the future – the love is still there.