Our Story (part 1)

We met on April 26, 1999. At that time, Kylan was living in Memphis, TN, working for a bank and Dawn was in Akron, OH, finishing up her second year of lawschool. We met online, in a Yahoo chatroom. Dawn asked if anyone wanted to talk and Kylan said hello. That's how it all began�
with a simple hello.



Kylan wanted to make sure that everything was on the table from the start, so he told Dawn that he was black. Her response was "So? I'm white. Does that mean we can't chat?" And from that point on, we talked about anything and everything, for hours at a time.

One of the first things that brought us together was our mutual interest in vampire lore. We both loved Anne Rice novels and any books, movies, or tv shows (like "The Kindred") that put vampires in the everyday world. But perhaps the most amazing thing that brought us closer together was the fact that we were both fans of Rick Springfield (yes, Rick Springfield). Kylan had enjoyed his music for a number of years while Dawn had loved him (and his music) since she was about eight years old.

Anyway, we "talked" online every night for a couple of hours and decided, not even a week after we met, to start talking on the phone. That's when the phone company really started to love us! Every night we would chat online for a couple of hours and then we would talk on the phone for an hour or two. This went on for almost two months until finally, in mid-June, we made the big decision to meet each other in person.



Now, it's a twelve hour drive from Akron to Memphis and considering we only had a weekend to spend together, neither one of us wanted to spend most of the time driving that far. So we met halfway� Louisville, KY. The drive itself was pretty straightforward and the city was easy to find. We were so happy to finally get to see each other in person and we had a wonderful weekend together. From that point on, we met in Kentucky once a month for the next three months.

By September we knew that we could no longer keep apart for such extended periods of time and we had to come to some sort of arrangement. Kylan decided to fly to Akron in November to see what it was like. It was hard, but we skipped our October visit so that Kylan could save a little extra money for his trip to Ohio. And that was the only trip up here he needed. On that extended weekend visit, we found a great townhouse apartment and started making plans for Kylan's move north. It was much easier for him to move since Dawn was in her final year of lawschool and couldn't have arranged a transfer that quickly.



You should know how big of a deal this move was. Kylan had never lived more than an hour or so away from close family and he had never travelled further north than Kentucky. And Akron was the furthest away from family Dawn had ever lived. Being from Canada, she moved to the U.S. specifically to attend lawschool and, until she met Kylan, was unsure whether she would remain in America or head back north of the border.

So, on December 27, 1999, Dawn drove back down to Ohio after having spent Christmas with family in Toronto. And on December 29, Kylan made the long drive up from Memphis. Hauling a trailer behind his truck, it took him more than fourteen hours to get to Akron. And of course, part of his drive ended up going through a bit of a snowstorm, not long after he crossed into Ohio. It was such a relief, for both of us, when Kylan finally pulled into Hunter's Lake apartments in Cuyahoga Falls, just north of Akron. The greatest thing about the timing of his arrival was that we were able to spend New Year's eve together, ringing in a new millenium.

Our Story (part 2)