John and Deb had both been through painful experiences. He had lost his first wife to breast cancer, while she had suffered through the pain of divorce. Both came to CatholicMatch looking for change, but realistic in their expectations.
“No one could replace my late Christine nor would I expect the next lady to,” John said. But he wanted someone he could continue on with in life. For her part, Deb had made a decision to stop looking so hard for love and let love find her.
They built camaraderie with messages back and forth, starting last July, and after spending a few months moving to phone calls and regular text messages, they looked at Thanksgiving as a time to get together.
John’s work as a TV engineer made it difficult for him to get time off, so she made the trip. In her excitement, she didn’t sleep the night before and was exhausted after the early morning flight from Indiana to Iowa. Since her hotel wasn’t ready, she took a nap at John’s house and crashed for five solid hours. “I was OUT!”, she said emphatically.
But the nap was time well spent, because it gave her the energy for five solid days of fun. Deb and John share a common interest in music, and they each have a son, both of whom where there to share Thanksgiving with them. In fact, it was an insight from his 17-year old boy that sealed the deal for John.
“His words were ‘Dad she made this house feel like a home for the first time in years’,” John told CatholicMatch. And it only took three short months to take the next step. John brought Deb to the altar where he’d married his first wife and proposed marriage.
Deb and John still have some challenges to meet. Foremost among them, is her Lack of Form annulment has to be obtained. She and her son are coming to Iowa, and it will require him switching high schools and her finding a new job. But both Deb and John have already been tested by fire and, like gold, have emerged purer and stronger. Now they are moving forward together.
