At the age of 44, I had pretty much given up on love. I had pretty much given up on finding someone. I had just pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I would spend my life alone.
I had place a profile on Webdate.com sometime in early 2005. Though I had dated several guys from Webdate, none seemed to work out. One of the good thing about Webdate is that you can see who viewed your profile. Well, one day I ran across a profile, but didn't email him. He noticed that I viewed his profile and he emailed me on Tuesday, November 22. 2005. Here is the actual message he emailed me:
A little hummingbird told me that you were looking over my profile so I thought
I would give you a chat. Hi, how are you this fine evening?
I checked out his profile and he seemed interesting enough. I emailed him back. We kept missing each other online, but kept sending emails back and forth through Webdate. Then we finally got the chance to talk on the phone. We agreed to meet that night (which was the night after Thanksgiving). Little did I know that I would have so very much to be thankful for that year.
We decided to go to a steak house for dinner. As we were waiting for our table, Carl put his arm around me and said "We fit well together". I knew that this man was like none I had known before. With a great steak dinner and even better conversation, we got to learn more about each other. (I won't go into any details, but we had a wonderful time). Basically from then on, if we didn't see each other in person, we were either talking on the phone or emailing each other.
Since I was living at my mom and dad's, as was he (pretty unusual for a 44 and 49 year old, huh?, but it just gave us that much more in common), we decided to live together. So in January, he pretty much moved into my parents house with me. (My parents are a little more easy going about that).
On January 13, 2006; two days after my birthday, we were in the parking lot of the same resturant that we had our first date. Carl asked me to marry him. Of course, I said yes. We then went to look at rings, so he could get a better idea of what I wanted and to compare prices. We then went to see a movie. What happen after the movie was pretty terrifying (I won't go into details, as the focus of this is, afterall, a love story), but it brought us closer together and showed us how the other one would react in a certain situation.
Finally, in April 2006; we got our own place. It's a small basement apartment. It doesn't have much room, but it does give us our privacy. It also shows us how we are able to communicate and live with each other on a one on one basis. We have our good days, we have our bad days, but through it all, we do have our love.
Our relationship isn't perfect (he's a Republican...I'm a Democrat; he was married for 22 years...I have never been married), but that is what makes our relationship work. The fact that we aren't exactly like the other one and that we learn from each other, makes our relationship better and stronger.
Our story has a happy ending. Or should I say a happy beginning? Carl and I were married on June 9, 2007 in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The setting was beautiful complete with a gazebo and a little creek running right next to it. The honeymoon was fantastic and the chalet we rented for the week was just great, with a wonderful mountain view to gaze at. For photos, please click on the "Our Wedding". |
