When Elizabeth, 51, joined CatholicMatch, she had a few reservations. She wondered, “If you find someone, how do you decide when and where to meet them in person? What if you find someone that seems perfect but, he's located far away?”
Luckily, Ken, 48, was also from California, and he only lived between three and four hours away from Elizabeth. He broke the ice just in the nick of time by sending Elizabeth a bouquet of flowers emotigram.
Ken joined CatholicMatch because he thought it was time to settle down and get married. “I was tired of being alone," he says.
They almost didn’t meet
Frustrated that she wasn’t meeting anyone after almost six months, Elizabeth planned on not renewing her membership. “I had several men contact me, but none of them seemed serious, and quite a few would just disappear completely from CM. I found this rude. At least tell me you’ve changed your mind about me or CM in general. I don’t need a specific reason,” she explains.
When Elizabeth read over Ken’s profile, she liked that he seemed genuine. “Sometimes I think people embellish their profiles to impress others. I tried to be honest in my profile, and I felt like Ken was truthful in his as well.”
She and Ken started messaging, on May 11th, just a few days before her membership expired. “It seemed like there was enough interest on both our parts to renew the membership. I’m sure glad I did. Even though we started to email and text a few days after renewing, it was worth it.”
Huskies, Lord of the Rings, and Baseball
Elizabeth had finally found someone who loved the same things that she did. “We both like to volunteer not just at our respective churches but in other areas in our communities. We belong to church and outside groups. We both like dogs (especially huskies), The Lord of the Rings movies, country music, comedy movies, baseball (though we have different favorite teams), devotions including the rosary, and traveling. We both are strong supporters of our military. And finally, we both place a high value on the importance of family in our lives,” she says.
She adds, “I love that Ken is a regular church-goer. While I wouldn’t have ruled out someone that wasn’t, I’m very happy that he is and I won’t have to try to convince him to go.”
It was also important to Ken that Elizabeth goes to church weekly. “Our profiles sounded similar, and we both were involved in the church and volunteered, and that’s what I wanted. I also liked that she goes to faith formation.”
Chaperone or bodyguard call-what-you-may
When Elizabeth joined CatholicMatch, she worried about when and where she would meet an interested member. She decided that it would be best to meet on her turf and to have a safety net by having a third person join them.
On June 4, 2016, they met at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Sacramento, California. “A former seminarian from my church in Paradise, St. Thomas More, was being ordained a priest on that day.
A couple of groups from my church were going, and Ken met us there. So our first ‘date’ was an ordination Mass. Afterward, a church office volunteer, Pat, took us all to lunch. Others might think this was a strange first date, but I was happy with it, and I think Ken was too,” she says.
It seems like everyone has friends who met online...
When Elizabeth’s mom (who was the one who encouraged her daughter to join CatholicMatch) met Ken, she loved him right off the bat. The same was true for Elizabeth’s friends. “Everyone has been very supportive and encouraging. It seems like everyone that we have told that we met online has said that they have friends or relatives that have met online.”
Ken’s family have also been very supportive. “My family always told me, ‘You’re not getting any younger. You’re getting older. You need to find someone.’”
Thank goodness Ken doesn't mind driving
For some, a relationship that required someone to drive three to four hours for a date every two weeks—or even somewhere in the middle—would be a deterrent. “That’s not as bad as some long distance relationships, though. And we have made it work,” she says.
“I don’t like to drive in the Bay Area, and Ken is very understanding of this. When I first went to Vallejo with him to meet his mother, he actually came all the way up to Paradise to pick me up and then brought me home when the weekend was over. Who does that much traveling for his girlfriend?”
Since then, the couple has come up with a little better solution. They meet at her brother’s house in Roseville, which is about the halfway mark. “I leave my car there, and we continue to Vallejo in Ken’s car.”
Ken adds, “It will be easier when I transition to a new job that is closer to Elizabeth.”
Saving for the wedding
The couple hopes to get married, but Elizabeth says Ken needs to stop spoiling her and wasting tissue paper so that they can save for their wedding. Ken likes to give her many little presents mummified in tissue paper. “I had to tell him to stop because there was a tissue paper shortage and more seriously, we have a wedding for which we need to save money.”
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