Beth and Mark were maintaining a consistent email exchange on CatholicMatch, but it was staying on the same level. “Mark’s answers were direct, answers to questions and sharing little,” Beth told CatholicMatch. She decided to take a chance and wrote “a teasing, playful flirt.”
The flirt caused her to immediately second-guess and she feared she had overstepped the boundaries in their correspondence. A letter of apology followed. That was the trigger that opened Mark up.
“Oh Beth,” were the 64-year-old man from Michigan’s first words. “Those two words of reassurance leaped off the page,” Beth fondly recalled. “A clear testament that I found someone with a caring heart.” Mark and Beth were on their way to something special.
Once Mark opened up, he showered Beth with love and affection
Beth had been widowed for three years when she came to CatholicMatch and the 68-year-old who also hailed from Michigan wasn’t sure what to expect from online dating. She saw the CatholicMatch ad in her parish bulletin and figured that her small town—a community of little more than a thousand that she affectionately termed “Podunk USA”—offered little in the way of dating opportunities, so she needed to try something else.
Mark became that “something else” and after their correspondence broke through the initial barrier, they began to date. He took her for a ride on his Harley and out to lunch. During lunch, the shyness that marked his correspondence was gone—he opened up and began talking about himself in-depth. “He later told me he had gone into such depth so I would know he was not a serial killer,” Beth said.
Indeed, Mark was anything but—he was a devoted grandfather who loved to ride his Harley and enjoyed the simple things in life, making him an ideal lifestyle match for a woman who had 40 acres of land, three teenage foster sons and wanted a soulmate to help her care for it all.
Mark embraced all of Beth's life, from her three sons to her 40 acres.
