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Two years ago I was living in Sydney, Australia. Outwardly my life was the envy of many. A well paid job, lovely apartment, beautiful furniture, two cars, one for work and a sports car to play in. I was in good shape. I worked out at the gym, played tennis, belonged to a couple of social clubs but rarely went out. My job consumed most of my time. I was in the enviable position of being able to afford to take time off and treat myself to a week here and there at a beach resort, but deep down inside I was desperately lonely. Early in '97 a friend introduced me to the Internet. I thought, well at least I would be able to talk to people during the hours I was at home, so off I went and leased a computer. Surfing took me to the Personal Ads. Just talking wasn't enough. I wanted to find my "soulmate". I'd had two previous long term relationships, one marriage and one live together arrangement. Neither had been "right". I was sure that somewhere out there was someone for me. Someone special that I could spend the rest of my life with. Time was moving on too. I was no longer young being in my mid forties. That worried me too. Perhaps I was too old, I had lost the bloom of youth though I wasn't unattractive. Still, I had to believe that there was someome special just for me so I placed a Personals Ad. I received many replies in the first few weeks but none was special. Then came one which caught my eye. He was in the USA and here was I in Australia. I replied telling him where I was, not just a State or two away, but a continent or two. He wrote back saying he had wanted to come to Australia ever since seeing the first Mad Max movie which was filmed there. (He later told me it was my humor of saying that I wasn't only States away but continents that caught his attention.) In this second letter he also used one little word that had me hooked. He called me "hon". That one little endearment and I melted. I guess I was so hungry for love. From this point our letters crossed daily, then we began talking in a chat room and later we used PowWow. We sent each other love cards on an almost daily basis and also exchanged photos and later videos. Next came the meeting. We were both apprehensive, hoping that all we thought we had come to mean to each other was in fact so. He flew to Australia just 4 months after that first fateful email. Our meeting at the airport was all we had hoped and we had a wonderful month together travelling around Australia. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't all wine and roses. We had our moments of misunderstanding but they were all resolved. Our parting was heart rending, he didn't want to leave me and I didn't want him to go. It was raining the day he left. I stood in the rain crying until his plane was out of sight. The next 24 hours was so hard. I needed to talk to him and couldn't. he was somewhere up in the air wrapped up in his own thoughts. I wondered if he was really missing me as much as I was missing him. He was. So now it was my turn to plan a visit to him. I had to get around work schedules but was able to leave just before Christmas and have 6 weeks with him in his part of the world. Oh, our reunion was so wonderful. And 6 weeks later our second parting was so terrible. We vowed that when we next got together we never put ourselves through another parting. It was just too painful. We were reunited in Australia in April of '98. Became engaged in August and have now been together full time for over 12 months. We now maintain homes in both countries and still have to go through the process of one of us getting permanent residency in the other's country. We don't know how successful we will be but we are determind not to be parted. We both feel we will find the way and God will smile upon us. I would just like to say to anyone who is looking for love, don't give up. Your "Special Someone" is out there somewhere and perhaps a Personals Ad might work for you like it did for me. Helen, Currently with my Darling in Florida. |
