“Only jerks advertise in the personals,” I replied when one of my friends suggested I try the Jewish Bulletin in my pursuit of Mr. Right.
To get her off my back, I agreed to give it a try. That was 2-1/2 years ago. Today I have a wonderful husband and a beautiful daughter.
That was the short version. A longer version of the story goes like this:
At 35 I was tired of spending my life alone. After much protest, I agreed to give the Jewish Bulletin a try. I spent a month reading the personals and finally gathered all my nerve to answer an ad. A week later, I received a reply and we set a casual dinner date.
The nervousness of a blind date didn’t exist for me because I knew that anyone I met through the paper was a loser.
But the date started out well and continued that way. Then another good date, and another. For months, we ate, we hiked, we went to theater and to the movies. We traveled together to Lake Tahoe and to Central America. And I waited, patiently, to find out what was wrong with this guy who had an ad in the paper.
But I couldn’t find it. He was nice, easygoing and fun to be around. After only 10 months, Jeff proposed. He claims he knew on the fourth date I was the one; for me it took a bit longer. But by 10 months, I was sure.
A week later his mother threw us an engagement party in Florida that she had been planning for five weeks. After that day, we realized a big party was a big headache. We decided to elope.
We drove to the east side of Florida, and at sunset completed our wedding vows on the beach.
We didn’t waste any time from there. Two weeks later I was pregnant and in another month we owned a house. So far it has been a dream come true.
For anyone afraid of the personals, I say give it a try. I find it hard to believe I found the only nice guy out there.