At first, Michael wasn’t looking for marriage.
Instead, he wanted a lunch and dinner partner. “Someone who I could share my faith and interests with. That was it! No marriage idea at all,” Michael said.
He had turned to the web to find a companion and used another site before he found CatholicMatch, which he said he “literally stumbled onto.” Michael, who was 75 and had an annulment, joined June 15, 2015. He ended up finding more than what he thought he was looking for.
Stumbling upon the woman of his dreams...
“I was on for just a couple of weeks when I found her! The woman of my dreams. Faith-filled, educated, spiritual, and with a bonus… she was beautiful inside and out.” Another bonus: she also seemed like a fitting mealtime companion: “I read her profile and knew she would be a very interesting person to chat with during lunch or dinner.”
There was just one problem.
Michael lived near Bismarck, North Dakota. Georgia, who was 69 and widowed, lived near Albuquerque, New Mexico, over 1,000 miles away and 16 hours by car—what Michael describes as “a good distance to fly for just a dinner date.”
So instead they started dating long-distance.
But she knew exactly what she wanted (or so she thought!)
Unlike Michael, Georgia had known what she was looking for from day one. “I used CatholicMatch for a very obvious reason—my faith is the number one driving force in my life—and there was an advertisement in the back of our church bulletin—I thought that a partner in life would be nice,” Georgia said.
Also unlike him, she was initially disappointed. “I had been on CatholicMatch for about six weeks, and mostly thinking this was a dead end,” she said.
That’s when she widened her age parameters by one year. Little did she expect that she’d meet someone not only several years older—but also more than a thousand miles away.
Once they had connected, they moved fast. After just one week, they exchanged phone numbers. They started talking and their conversations ran for two to three hours a day—into the evenings.
“My family thought I had lost my mind. Her friends said she was being impulsive,” Michael said.
“Yes, initially, our friends thought that we should be committed,” Georgia added.
Time moved quickly for the smitten lovebirds.
But the two “clicked,” Georgia said. “We came to know each other very well. We have a strong Catholic faith, a driving desire to be in ministry and share our faith and the love of Christ,” she added. Among the many things they shared was an active life in the Church. Michael was in prison ministry, Georgia was involved in the Secular Franciscans.
Undaunted by the friends' concerns, the two continued to move forward quickly—Michael even proposed before meeting face to face. “We both knew the Holy Spirit was involved. Neither one of us had ever done anything like this before,” Michael said.
In early September, after just a little while after meeting online, Georgia flew to Bismarck, where she stayed with Michael’s son’s home for 10 days. “Once we met, we both realized this was it,” Michael said.
"It's as if we've been together for 30 years."
They set a date and got married on October 17th at a small country parish in New Mexico. (Georgia initially relocated to North Dakota for a year and a half with Michael. Then the couple moved back to New Mexico.)
“This is the smartest thing we have ever done,” Georgia said.
And now their friends agree, “Friends say that it seems that we have been married for 30 years. We agree—we truly complement each other. Age has been an advantage,” Georgia said.
Michael says their relationship also points to the importance of hope and faith in seeking your significant other. “There’s always faith and hope when Jesus is the center of your life,” he said.
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