I was at crossroads in my life, I knew I had to start making the right choices if I wanted to be happy and live a life of peace and love. Marriage was the last thing on my mind.
I had just bought a new computer and got it hooked to the Internet, little did I know at about the same time, the man I was supposed to spend the rest of my life was going through the same motions.
I had heard of Yahoo chat rooms, and was looking forward to going in and and chatting with people from all over the world from the safety of my home. I had built this comfort zone around me.
I managed to wean my way into a Yahoo chat room and almost immediately, was paged by Steve, he was Australian living in England. I explained I was a complete novice at online chat, and was waiting for my employer Josephine to come online, he said no problem, I will teach you a thing or two on here while you wait. Needless to say we had loads of fun. Steve invited me to his chatroom to meet all his friends, who were the most hilarious group I had ever met. I could not believe I was having so much fun with people I had never met, right from the comfort of my home.
It was late so I called it a day and went to bed as I had to wake up early to go to work, I commuted 3 hours a day to work and back, so I was pretty exhausted. I went to bed thinking of the next day when I could come back again and have a lot of 'safe fun'.
Evening came and as I went online Steve was there and We picked up on our conversation, it was great, I felt so free to be exactly who I was.Then all of a sudden I noticed I was being paged by someone else. His name was Stein_R He told me his 'real' name was John and was very polite. I told him I did not speak to strangers, and was kind of abrupt. That was a rather contradictory statement to make, as I was busy talking to all Steve's friends, on the other window. Well I guess the 'real me' surfaced when I decided to give in and speak to John. I was always very afraid of everything. Sleeping in the dark is still a problem for me.
This is the first picture I sent John of myself.
The next evening John paged me again and this time gave me more information and said he really wished that I talk to him to please trust him, but he was not going to be around for long as he had to go out for the last time with his ex girlfriend, they had to bowl in some tournament. I thought, "gee, he is honest."
I instinctively knew this was going to be different, The next evening after having chatted with him online for about 4 hours, I gave him my phone number and he called me, it was 3am, we spoke till 7am. He was in Canada and I was in Holland.
As days went by we both knew we were meant to be together, John was on my mind constantly, and I just could not concentrate on anything else except my next talk with John. I had fallen in love with his voice and for some reason or the other, felt so secure with him, it all felt so right. I still had not seen John and he had not seen me, so we decided to exchange pictures, I used discretion and sent him a picture of me and my girlfriend together and asked him to tell me which one of us would he like me to be? Which was rather unfair of me, as I put him on the line. But John had no problem he knew who I was immediately. He took rather long to send me his picture, I was not worried as I had decided he was the one for me. But I do admit I was a bit anxious to see what he looked like. He was nervous, just in case I never liked the way he looked. When I finally saw his picture, it came as no surprise, I felt I had known him all my life, it was truly an amazing feeling.
The picture on the left was taken by John's colleague Elaine, and now a special friend of mine. Elaine emailed me when I was in Holland, and told me to come to Canada and make John a happy man. Elaine is, the kind of friend everyone needs. She is there when you need her. Elaine listens, Elaine will tell you what you need to know. This is a picture of us on honeymoon. We went to 'A Thousand Islands' in Ganonoque.
This is my first birthday in Canada, this was the day, John officially proposed to me and gave me an engagement ring. Again Elaine organized a surprise for me, and a bunch of John's colleagues arrived with balloons and presents.

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The rest is history. The picture on the left is of me on me two nights before I left Holland. I had a super party and danced the night away, John called and heard part of the celebrations. John and I knew from the very start that we were born to be together. I had admired and loved two men in my life. My Dad whose name is John, and my Uncle whose name is Robert. John's name is John Robert. I had an Aunt and an Uncle who I loved with all my heart live in Canada, John told me he lived in Canada too. I thought Wow!!
I had a big brother who I had lost contact with, he was in Canada too. I thought the pieces of my life were coming together. I always knew that poeple whose names beginning with the letter 'M' were going to be important in my life. John's surname was Martin. My son is Mario, my biological mother's name is Maureen.
Mum's best friend Marie told me I was adopted. John's Mother's name was Marie too. John has an Aunt 'Marge', she is like a mother to me here in Canada. The two doctors who performed surgery on me, also had names beginning with an M, Michael and Manuchehr. The nurses who really cared for me, were Marie and Maria. My best friend on the web is also an 'M' Megan. I know one day we will meet. Megan is brilliant, intelligent and one hell of a woman. She is too funny and very straight to the point and down to earth. Then there is Marcia my web colleague, we go a long way, helping to STOP Domestic Violence.
This picture was also taken by Marti our 'Best Man's Wife, just before we tied the knot. The flowers came from Holland were sent by my sister Caroline. We married on John's mother's birthday, 29th Aug 2000. It was a very quiet affair, we wanted to be married, because we wanted to be husband and wife, and not because we wanted to have a big party. We were married by John's mother's minister, in a beautiful small church in a place called Mount Pleasant.
This is a chiristmas card I made for our friends for Christmas 2001. John knows I love Christmas, and he always makes it a great time for me. He keeps surprising me with the most beautiful presents through out the season, he even picked out clothes for me, which looked good on me and fitted. A task which takes me ages to do on my own. This last Christmas I was inundatated with the most beautiful gifts. Gosh sometimes I feel like the girlfriend and not the wife.
This picture was taken on my first New Years Eve in Canada. We ended up going to the most boring Club which only had polka music. After we brought in the new Millenium, we went to a groovy kind of club but were too tired to groove, the earlier boredom tired us out.
Extreme right is our best man Sir Chancilot and his wife Marti, and guess what? This part is really funny. When the time came for me to say 'I do' I said it to Chance instead of John, just at that moment, John decided to look down, and Chance was looking at me. So that was the first boo boo. Shortly after that the minister said, "You may now kiss the bride", I had to butt in and say, "but I have not put the ring on John's finger yet". We all burst out laughing unceramoniously. Later when I had a look at our wedding video, I noticed John had forgotten to spit out his chewing gum and remembered during the sermon and then swallowed it right there and then. Imagine if it got stuck Whew!! Then that would have really been the icing on the cake.
It is now 2005, I still love John.
when I think I just cannot understand him, but however hard to understand and how difficult, times can get, I know John is my partner forever.
We know what's in each other's hearts. When we look into each other's eyes, we reveal our souls to each other. I know that John loves me as much as he possibly can. We never chose to spend time away from each other, we would rather be together than apart. Even if we are getting on each other's nerves. John is special, he is different. He is kind, and affectionate, and besides being totally in love with his eyes and his voice. There is so much in him, which I respect and admire totally.
Playing in the background is the song John sent me in an email when I was still in Holland. He told me that they were his true feelings and emotions. When I heard the lyrics I fell in love with them too.
Well this is my love story for you. I hope you enjoyed reading it as I enjoyed living it.
A short while ago I received an email from a girl in the UK telling me she is going through the exact same experience with a person living in the States. I wish her all the love and luck in the world.
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