It was just prior to last Thanksgiving, and Jesus was, by his own admission “a discouraged member” of CatholicMatch. He was so discouraged that he decided to close his account. The one thing that stopped him from doing so was seeing Veronica’s profile in the list of photos on his home page.
Jesus clicked on Veronica's profile and went “from a discouraged member to a hopeful member, just like that.”
Jesus and Veronica exchanged emotigrams, but she wasn’t getting her hopes up. There had been too many previous instances of such exchanges, where her ensuing message never drew a reply.
This encounter would be the one that proved the adage which says you have to get through a lot of discouragement and false hope before finding the right path.
Since Veronica did not allow her discouragement to prevent her from reaching out, she was able to have the pleasure of getting an effusive reply from Jesus. “He introduced himself and said ‘Eres muy hermosa,’” she recalled. The words are Spanish for “you are beautiful.”
The 34-year-old woman from southern California admits to blushing at the notion that Jesus found her physically attractive, because she felt the same way about him. Veronica also had enough depth to want to push past the attraction and understand Jesus on a deeper level.
It led to a very extensive correspondence between the two. Since Jesus lived in Seattle, an 18-hour drive away, a face-to-face meeting was not immediately practical. Jesus and Veronica invested themselves in writing on topics that went well beyond the surface, covering everything from their faith to their childhoods.
“I felt as though I had made a friend,” Veronica said. Jesus would say that he felt like he could tell Veronica anything.
The following month they decided to talk on the phone and in one short week they logged 26 hours of phone time. Then in the second week, the developing relationship seemed to be nipped in the bud.
“I put my guard up when Jesus said things I disagreed with,” Veronica recalled. “He became prideful when I proposed slowing things down.” It led to a heated argument and a brief cessation of contact. But as luck would have it, they’d each put letters in the mail expressing their feelings for each other prior to this discord.
Jesus reached out with a text message apologizing. He told Veronica that pride should not interfere with endless possibilities. Veronica would later say that going through the process of forgiveness made the relationship stronger and the feelings for each other deeper.
There was still the question of what would happen when they finally met each other face-to-face and both remained cautious. But when they got together, there would be no repeat of the unfortunate phone incident. Jesus and Veronica clicked in person, and all the common bonds they’d developed through correspondence and phone conversations came blossoming forth.
Jesus proposed marriage and Veronica accepted. They will be wed in February 2014. A process that started with Jesus as a discouraged member and led to being a hopeful member now has him as an engaged member.
