By then I had come to love the person
on the other end of our e-mail, icq, and phone relationship; for I THOUGHT I could see the TRUE "Beauty" within
as well as what I saw in the photographs.

Being realistic,
we even discussed what we would do if
"It didn't work out", including my committment to "Help find and move her to wherever she chose to go".

In spite of my objections,
she sold or left many possessions in Colorado after packing everything she could fit into her Ford Ranger,
and arrived
(on Valentines day, 1998) 1 month and 8 days after our first internet meeting.

I was surprised by our first face to face meeting at the end of a 3 mile dirt road after she had gotten stuck in the mud and had to call me to meet her.
She was different than either of the photos depicted or I had fantasized she would be.

Having already come to love her in absentia,
my love swelled up in my heart at our first tentative embrace beside her packed to the brim car.
A love I had only dreamed and fantasized and hoped for for so many years.

Fourteen months later,
(4 months after being told
"It isnt going to work or last between us and one of us must leave");
and after living through the happiest year of my life,
I had to sell everything I could to buy a van & start my journey to find happiness.