When Winnie, 27, beamed Derek, 25, an emoticon smile, he was instantly smitten. He kept thinking that she was so amazing that it was too good to be true. “My first impression was this couldn’t be real,” Derek remembers.
Winnie joined CatholicMatch on April 11, 2015, and a few weeks later, while looking at her matches, Derek, from Bardstown, KY caught her eye. “I read through his profile and recognized we had a lot in common,” recalls Winnie, who lives an hour away in Louisville, KY. “So I went ahead and ‘beamed him a smile.’ The messenger said we both expressed interest in the match. He messaged me with a, ‘Hello there.’”
His simple greeting got the ball rolling, and they messaged back and forth all that afternoon. Winnie had plans to go out and play bingo with some of her girlfriends, so Derek asked for her phone number because he wanted to continue talking to her via text. “He seemed nice, so I went ahead and gave him my number.”
The two continued to text throughout the evening. Because it was going well, Winnie’s friends encouraged her to invite him to meet them at a bar. “I asked him if he and his friend wanted to meet us later for drinks.
Before going to meet her, Derek asked her to send another picture of herself, so they exchanged pictures. “I told my buddy, ‘There no way this girl is real.’”
Even though Derek had seen pictures of Winnie on her CatholicMatch profile, he wanted to see a recent one because he had a bad experience. A while back, he had been a member of Christian Mingle and a woman he had been communicating with wasn’t honest about how she looked. When they met up, she looked totally different from her picture.
After bingo was finished, Winnie and her friend headed back to her house to drop off a friend’s car. They were almost to Winnie’s house when the car started smoking, so she had to text Derek to tell him they would be late because of car problems. “He was very understanding and offered several times to come and help us. After waiting about an hour and a half, the tow truck showed up.”
It was taking Winnie and her friends so long to get their car problems settled that Derek started to worry. “I thought she was going to stand me up. I even told her, ‘You’re sure you’re not cat-fishing me?’”
Winnie says she could tell that Derek was worried about being stood up. “I reassured him that we would be on our way to the bar soon. Finally, my friend and I were able to head to the bar.”
So Much in Common
Winnie and her friends had been waiting only 10 minutes when Derek arrived and introduced himself. “When I saw her, I was amazed. Right off the bat, we hit it off. I found that we had a lot in common—and still do. She's kind of a nerd like I am because we both enjoy Disney, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter,” Derek says.
They have many other things in common; they enjoy watching and attending sporting events and trying new things together. “Derek has taken me on a four-wheeler and taught me to shoot a shotgun—some things I never thought I would do. I have taken him to new restaurants, musical productions, and soon I am taking him on his first trip to Disney World,” Winnie says.
They also are close to their families, passionate about their jobs, and helping others. “I am a nurse and love taking care of my patients, helping them heal and promoting a healthy lifestyle. Derek loves teaching his students and helping them realize their potential. Very much like me, Derek is close with his family. We love doing things with our families, even if it’s hanging out and watching a movie,” Winnie shares.
Matching-Making Dads & Supportive Friends
It was both of their dads who encouraged them to sign up for CatholicMatch after noticing an ad in the church bulletin. Winnie recalls, “My dad said, ‘I think you should check out this website. Maybe you will find a nice guy.’ I decided why not give it a try?”
Derek’s dad good-naturedly won’t let him forget that he is the catalyst for Derek’s good fortune. “He enjoys that and hangs it over my head,” Derek laughs. “He says, ‘You would have never met Winnie if it wasn’t for me.’”
Winnie’s friends are overjoyed for her and they are big fans of online dating—and most of Derek’s friends are also supportive. “A lot of my friends think that online dating is the ‘greatest thing since sliced bread,’ because it allows you to look at potential partners based on your personalities and things you have in common,” she says. One those friends joined CatholicMatch because he saw how perfect Winnie and Derek were for each other.
The Future
Derek and Winnie have been dating since May 1, 2015, and they see their relationship moving towards marriage. Derek already has a proposal scenario in mind, but he’s keeping it under wraps.
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