"I was about ready to pull the plug on CatholicMatch until Theresa contacted me," John, 53, reveals. "I was like, 'Here we go again.'"
Too many women had seemed like potential matches to John, but all of them ended up telling him that they couldn't handle his disability. John has neurofibromatosis—the same disease that the Elephant Man had—which caused his left lower leg to have to be amputated leaving him confined to a wheelchair.
Unlike other members who John had communicated with, Theresa, now 51, was persistent, and she didn't seem to mind that he was disabled.
What can I say? I liked him!
"I hounded him," she laughs. "I absolutely loved his smile. On his profile picture, he had this grin on his face like he could do no wrong."
John joins in the laughter, "I was being hunted. I was scared for a minute. I was never pursued like that before."
"I wasn't stalking you!" Theresa exclaims.
"She did," John teases. "And um [he clears his throat for effect], she says to me, 'How would you feel if I came down and visited you this weekend?"
Theresa clarifies, "That was after four months!"
John, whose first marriage was annulled, tells me he couldn't quite believe that there was a woman who actually wanted to come visit him and that she was also willing to drive 350 miles from Greensboro, North Carolina, to his home in Hiram, Georgia.
Theresa explains that she especially enjoyed talking to John and so she didn't want to delay meeting him.
"I'd had good luck with online relationships and being the first one to initiate a meeting," explains Theresa, whose first husband was deceased. "I met him online when I was living in California. We took a year and a half before we met in person. I did the same thing and suggested that I come and visit him in North Carolina. We were married 13 years until he passed away."
I drove to Georgia to meet him
Theresa shares that she wanted to take her relationship with John to the next level. She lives her life by the "no regret" philosophy. "I don't ever want to look back and say, 'Oh, I should have done this."
In mid-October 2016, Theresa drove to John's hometown, and John came to the hotel to pick her up for their first date. They had plans to drive to Mother Angelica's Shrine.
When he first saw Theresa at the hotel, "I thought, 'Oh, baby," he remembers.
She adds, "It was a two-hour drive to get there and here's this guy that I don't know—you always hear don't get into cars with strangers. That two-hour drive was probably one of the best things we could do."
The car ride gave them a chance to talk face-to-face and to get past their nerves.
Both John and Theresa could feel the chemistry, but John was a little shy. "On the way back from the Shrine, I so wanted him to reach over and hold my hand."
John interjects, "We were driving on backroads, so I needed to keep both hands on the wheel. Besides, I didn't want to do anything that would cause me to get hit while I'm driving."
"He was a perfect gentleman," she adds.
The giddy drive home
The next day John took Theresa to Mass and then she left to go home because she had to work on Monday morning. The nearly six-hour drive home gave her a chance to reflect on the date.
She put her best friend on Bluetooth, so she could get her opinion. "I was very hopeful and feeling giddy."
Second date: the hound-test
Three weeks later, in November 2016, Theresa drove down for a second visit with John. During this visit, one of John's big worries was alleviated. "I was worried that my dog wouldn't like Theresa."
John owns a 70-pound mixed hound that thinks he's a lap dog. "I passed the hound-test so that scored me points right there."
From the second visit, it was pretty much sealed that John and Theresa were a couple. He drove to see her in North Carolina a couple of times, but most of the dating happened in John's town.
Three months later...
A hospital proposal
