Rose was stepping out into a brave new world where she signed up for CatholicMatch. The 24-year-old from Michigan hadn’t focused on dating when she was in school. “All through college I just wanted to study, and not date,” she recalled. “I wanted to wait until I was ready to get married.”
That changed after she graduated with her degree in music. “I was telling my mother how I feel really old,” she told CatholicMatch. With a family friend having found success using CatholicMatch, Mom suggested Rose try the same. She did and the results were immediate.
Within two weeks she got an emotigram from Luke, a 27-year-old electrical engineer living in California. There was no real expectation of a relationship given the distance, but they decided it wouldn’t hurt to talk.
But those early messages forged a connection between the two. “He just seemed like he was really nice,” Rose said. All the things he was for.” There might not have been one particular threshold moment, but there was clearly something special that was gradually coming together each day.
The first messages took place in March, and by June, Luke decided he was ready to make the trip to Michigan. “We had an amazing weekend!” Rose recalled with excitement. She knew she was in love with him and they did what they do to make a long-distance relationship work. It was hard on both of them, and she spoke candidly of just how difficult it was to see someone special for only 2-3 days at a time and when they left, not knowing when things would work out for another meeting. But phone conversations and Skype made it bearable.
Luke and Rose also worked on being creative in keeping the relationship alive. They kept a joint journal and took turns writing in it for a week. In the short-term it was “a springboard for conversation,” as Rose put it. In the long-term it will serve as a treasure chest of memories.
After four long-distance visits, countless hours spent together electronically and shared hopes and fears through the journal, Luke was prepared to take the next step. He met Rose in Cincinnati for her birthday and with the flickering lights of the city in the background, went to one knee and proposed marriage. Rose accepted.
The wedding is planned for this summer and the couple is tentatively planning to settle in California. Rose is working to gain certification as a nanny/governess—a perfect job for one who loves children—and her school helps graduates gain employment. If she finds work by the wedding, Luke will relocate because of the relative ease for an electrical engineer finding work. If not, she will move to where his current work is at.
Wherever they settle, good things are surely ahead for a couple that patiently waited until the time was right
