How We Met {Part One}

My partner and I would never have got together if it wasn’t for the Internet.

In 1998, I had renal cancer and after surgery and while I recovered, I started looking on line for what as kids we used to call “pen-pals.” I put a note in the personals being absolutely truthful about my age and using the words “hope to find a friend and perhaps eventually a soul mate.” Well, I got a few answers but no one I found particularly interesting . Then, several weeks after the ad I had put in had expired, I got email from this man in Vermont who was six years older than me. We hit it off immediately and found we had a lot to talk about. We both collected books of word origins and both of us had several dictionaries. We were both interested in history, especially in English history which I knew a lot about because I spent the first 29 years of my life in England.

At that time, I had a mail program with a “tickle” feature. This meant that I had a way to “tickle” my memory if I hadn’t answered a piece of mail by a certain date. I used to put his mail in the tickle folder so I would be sure to answer it within a week. But, one day, I forgot! A week passed. Another week passed and I decided that this man had decided to discontinue our correspondence. But, I liked him a lot, so I dropped him a quick note” Are we still corresponding?” He wrote back the same day saying that he had thought I had dropped him since I never answered his last letter!

Just about the time we got this sorted out, I decided to go to England for three weeks to see my sister, and, as it happened, a male friend {who used to be a lover} was going at the same time so, on an impulse, I invited this man, Pete, to visit me and my sister {with whom I was staying} I had told my partner {only he wasn’t at that time} that I was looking forward to seeing Stonehenge and Glastonbury and we talked a lot about the history of the area before I left. I gave him an email address on my sister’s computer so that he could keep in touch with me. Much later, he told me that while I was in England and while I was chatting artlessly about the fun Pete and I were having, was when he realized that he was beginning to feel more than friendship for me.

More later…