Lac La Biche Valentine's Day love story

LAC LA BICHE - “She’s just incredible, I’ve never known someone like her before,” said 26-year-old Cameron Parker about his fiance and the love of his life, Eden Roberts.

The local couple’s Valentine’s story began eight years ago when they were introduced through mutual friends online as they both played the popular battle game League of Legends.

Parker, who is born and raised in Lac La Biche, says Roberts — from Grande Prairie — first thought he was “loud and annoying.” Parker says he did end up “weaseling” his way into Roberts’ heart enough that after four years of online friendship she drove to Edmonton where he was celebrating a birthday with friends, so they could meet for the first time.

The relationship slowly developed, and over the years Parker noticed she was extremely kind and hardworking, putting herself through nursing school and working multiple jobs, all while taking care of her younger siblings. Parker ended up asking Roberts to be his girlfriend while he was lying in a hospital bed on pain killers due to a chronic health condition. Her response was that they would talk about it the next day.

“She thought that I’d forget I asked her because of the drugs I was on, but I did not forget,” said Parker.

When he asked her again the next day, it was clear they both wanted to be together, but there was one problem - the distance. She was still living in Grande Prairie, so they decided to remain friends while she was finishing up nursing school. As her schooling neared its end, Roberts needed to find a registered nurse to work under to complete her preceptorship, and as luck would have it, Parker explained with a smile, he just happened to be friends with a nurse at Lac La Biche’s William J. Cadzow hospital.

“So, they filled out the paperwork, and Eden moved here and started her preceptorship, then she graduated, and moved here full-time. At that point, we were dating,” said Parker.

He knew early on that he wanted to be with her for the rest of his life, and so during the summer of 2019, within a year of them being “official," he planned a scavenger hunt throughout Lac La Biche County — and at the end he would be waiting with a ring.

“I put riddles in glass bottles all across town, and there was a letter at the bottom of each riddle and altogether it spelled out W-I-N-S-T-O-N C-H-U-R-C-H-I-L-L," said Parker.

The clues led Roberts to the provincial park where Parker officially popped the question.

She said yes, and they were planning a more low-key style wedding for 2020 — until the pandemic happened, forcing them to hold off. In a relationship that has weathered time and distance, the couple believes they can wait out a global pandemic as well.

They haven’t made any specific plans to reschedule the wedding as they ride out the COVID-19 wave. Like the League of Legends game that brought them together, Roberts and Parker say their relationship has been an adventure and an enjoyable challenge. One more challenge — one they can share together — is going to be worth the wait.

“We are just going to wait until we can celebrate with our friends and family,” he said. Parker is looking forward to spending another Valentine's Day with Roberts, and is grateful to have met someone as wonderful and caring as she is to share the adventure.

“She is just always there for me no matter what,” said Parker.