*America could use a love story right now.
Not a Hollywood romance where every disagreement disappears before the closing credits. America could use a story about two imperfect people who had experienced relationships that did not work, kept living, kept believing—and unexpectedly found each other while grocery shopping in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Their names are Edmond and Monica Davis.
Their story began in Aisle 10.
In 2008, Edmond W. Davis and Monica Graham entered a grocery store on Baseline Road in Southwest Little Rock separately. Neither was shopping for a spouse. Yet two lives intersected.
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Years later, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette chronicled their unlikely beginning in “A Match Made in Aisle 10 of the Grocery Store”. Edmond noticed Monica, eventually approaching her near the magazine section. She was an educator. He was a college professor working on a book.
They exchanged numbers. A telephone call became a date. A date became a relationship. Relationship became prayer. Prayer became commitment.
On September 25, 2011, commitment became marriage.
Now they celebrate 15 years as husband and wife—and 18 years since Aisle 10 changed their lives.
The Produce-Section Prophecy
Back when Edmond was a bachelor at Grambling State University in the 1990s—and later while joking with his Groove Phi Groove Social Fellowship brothers—he would tell friends that men serious about finding wives might have better luck around the fresh produce than the Oreos and sweets.
It wasn’t peer-reviewed research. Then life delivered the punch line: he met his wife while she was looking at magazines. Today, they sometimes take separate cars to that same grocery store, enter independently and pretend they don’t know one another. Eventually, they return to Aisle 10. Their eyes meet. For a moment, 2026 becomes 2008—and the husband gets to meet his wife again.
The Teacher He Met
Monica has devoted nearly three decades to education in the Little Rock School District. Her community impact received special recognition when THV11 named her an “Arkansan of the Day.”
Watch THV11’s Monica Davis — Arkansan of the Day
She also sings, prompting her professor-husband to offer one of his favorite compliments: “When Monica sings, she takes the professor to school.” That is part of marriage: learning to celebrate the gifts of the person standing beside you.
From Homelessness to History
The professor Monica encountered beside the magazines could hardly have predicted where life would take him. Today, Edmond works across history, education, journalism, entrepreneurship and public engagement. His professional biography documents nearly 25 years in higher education and work as a social historian, author, journalist, speaker and consultant.
But long before the headlines came homelessness. More than four decades ago, Edmond’s family experienced homelessness. His journey from adversity to educator and historian eventually became the subject of the short documentary FROM GRIND TO GROWTH: The Edmond W. Davis Story.
Behind that film was another love story: Monica helped finance the documentary as a gift to her husband. The woman Edmond met while shopping eventually helped preserve her husband’s childhood story of adversity and survival on film. Sometimes marriage means investing in another person’s story.
Two People Became a Family—and Builders
Edmond and Monica raised their son, Kalon, who became an HBCU graduate. Meanwhile, the family balanced classrooms, books, nonprofit work, mentoring, church and entrepreneurship. There were ventures that worked and others that did not: a charter-school effort, RESPOND-I-BILITY, social-history consulting, educational projects and Uni-Tee Graphics & Designs. Their community-building work has outside documentation. The Arkansas Black Philanthropy Collaborative reports that Aviate Through Knowledge Inc. was founded in 2014 and developed programs including RESPOND-I-BILITY, the Unburied Truth Series and Prolific Leaders Awards. The organization reported that nearly 1,000 students had been exposed to RESPOND-I-BILITY’s social and emotional life-skills programming.
That philosophy eventually expanded into Edmond’s signature initiative, the National HBCU Black Wall Street Career Fest, connecting HBCU students, alumni and communities with employers, entrepreneurship and economic opportunities. Entrepreneurship in the Davis household has therefore never been solely about selling something. It has been about building something.
Faith Before the Headlines
Their marriage also has a spiritual foundation. The Davises attend Bountiful Blessings World Fellowship under Bishop Dr. Stephen W. Christian, who provided spiritual marriage counseling before their wedding and officiated their marriage. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 teaches that two are better than one and can lift each other when one falls. 1 Corinthians 13:7 describes love as bearing, believing, hoping and enduring. Mark 10:9 declares, “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” Those Scriptures don’t promise effortless marriage.
They describe commitment.
Fifteen years does not mean 15 years without disagreements, unsuccessful ideas, career pressures or unanswered prayers. Marriage isn’t sustained because two people always agree. Sometimes it survives because two people agree that the marriage matters even when they disagree with each other.
Meet Me There Again
Eventually, this story must return to where it belongs. Not a stage. Not a classroom. Not an awards ceremony. A grocery-store parking lot. Edmond gets into one vehicle. Monica gets into another. They drive separately to Southwest Little Rock. They enter separately. He walks. She browses.
Eventually, they find Aisle 10.
Their eyes meet again. Only now those eyes carry 18 years of history: a wedding, a son, classrooms, students, books, businesses, homelessness overcome, entrepreneurship, Black Wall Street, prayers, victories, disappointments, and growth. America doesn’t need another perfect love story.
It needs authentic ones.
Two people who had known failed relationships found each other. They prayed. Married. Raised a son. Educated students. Built businesses. Took risks. Lost some. Won some. And kept choosing each other. Two people became a partnership.
The partnership became a family. The family built a life.
Perhaps that’s the lesson of Aisle 10.
Maybe you already found your love and simply need to remember where it began. Maybe your story hasn’t started yet. Maybe love is waiting at church, school, work, or a community event. Or maybe—just maybe—it is standing in Aisle 10 of your neighborhood grocery store.
Edmond still has one piece of advice:
Check the healthy-food section first. Because sometimes two people walk into a grocery store looking for dinner—
and walk out having found the rest of their lives.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Edmond W. Davis is one of America’s top social historians, media strategists, and professors. Davis is the founder of the National HBCU Black Wall Street Career Fest. A native of Philadelphia, PA, he, his wife, Monica, and his son, Kalon, currently live in Little Rock, Arkansas. area. Davis is committed to cultural empowerment and educational equity. through storytelling and civic engagement. In 2026, Davis was a grand marshal at the 38th Annual African American History Month Celebration Parade, the largest in the U.S. during Black History Month. His life is told in the 2023 ‘Short Documentary of the Year’ at the Black Excellence Awards, titled ‘FROM GRIND TO GROWTH: The Edmond W. Davis Story. Davis was also the courthouse jailroom deputy on the NBC TV miniseries Bluff City Law.
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