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On this day, in 2000, I met my current bride for the first time. We first "met" online, before dating websites were really a thing. Search engines still had personal ads, like newspapers used to. We'd been writing & phoning since Feb. We lived 300 miles apart.
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I lived in Hampton, VA, on the coast. She lived not far from Roanoke. I was working for myself, finding & servicing vacant properties for mortgage lenders. The western part of VA had no people doing routine work, so the previous fall I'd gotten a bonus to come out here.
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That job I made $300 just to cut 4 ft tall grass & do a routine securing job. I had about 20 others that took me to other towns here, and into West Virginia. Being out here is what made me notice her ad.
I had written to her that fall (1999) and gotten no reply.
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I had written to her that fall (1999) and gotten no reply.
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Didn't know until later that she'd started seeing a guy the previous summer. Right after meeting, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Oh by the way, she was a hospice nurse then. So she kept seeing him on her free time until he passed in January.
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When we decided to meet, I had the office that gave me work, make a trip for out this way. It was to be on Sunday, Apr 9, the day Lee surrendered at Appomattox. As usual, I left the house around 0330 & headed west on US 58. It's a mostly 4 lane that crosses the entire state.
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Rendezvous time was for 1300. I had worked about 8 or 9 properties on the way & had a couple that took me into NC, not far from Martinsville, VA. It was then I called her cell to let her know I was in the area. Our "date" was to have lunch.
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The place she'd set for the meet had closed, so when she got close she had to make a change. I didn't know the area, so she picked a Hardees in Stanleytown, VA, named for the Stanley Furniture Company.
The directions were simple, so I headed north toward Martinsville.
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The directions were simple, so I headed north toward Martinsville.
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Unbeknownst to me, Apr 9 that year was race day at Martinsville! I had to find one house there on the way & it was a madhouse for traffic. But I finally made it, about 5 minutes after she got to the parking lot.
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This was where we met for lunch. I'd been on the road since 0330, and except for some snacks, hadn't eaten yet. We sat down to get acquainted and I asked her what she wanted to eat.
"Oh, nothing." I'm smelling the fried chicken I'd planned on devouring.
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"Oh, nothing." I'm smelling the fried chicken I'd planned on devouring.
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They had the 2 piece meal deal at the time and I could almost taste the mashed taters that came with it. So I got us a couple cups of coffee. We later had iced tea. And we sat in Hardees and talked for almost 4 hours.
It was time for her to head back up the mountain.
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It was time for her to head back up the mountain.
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No hug, no kiss, but a cordial farewell. I had a couple more houses to do in the area, so I was staying around. Being starving by then, I left Hardees in Stanleytown, and drove to Hardees in Collinsville, right next door. No way I was going back in the first one to eat.
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After I finished the houses for the day, I went back to a house I'd secured earlier. I brought my cot & sleeping bag, because I'm a cheap b*stard and this place was free. Little did I know the road was the main short cut & race traffic made noise until midnight.
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I went north to Charlottesville & worked my way back east the following day. I had talked to her a couple times that morning and had emails waiting when I got home. I began coming out on my down time and by November, we'd decided to wed.
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We got married on Dec 31, 2000 at 1400. The Chaplain of the Hospice officiated. He forgot to tell people to sit down, so everyone stood for 20 minutes. We were the last couple married in our county, in the 20th century.
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She went from being a hospice nurse to birthing babies the last dozen years until she retired. She was an RN for 40 years. Now she collects Chihuahuas.
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