We met face to face 12 years ago today

I stepped off the plane in Atlanta, my heart racing, finally I would have a face to go with that voice. I scanned the crowd, looking for the yellow and black power wheelchair. Nope, I couldn't see him. I thought to myself that maybe he was stuck in traffic. So I took a seat and waited, and waited, and waited. This was in the time before everyone carried a cell phone. I tried calling his house from the payphone. There was no answer. I knew he said he would meet me at the gate but I had already waited an hour. Where could he be?

Maybe he meant for me to meet him at baggage? The Heartsfield Airport is huge, you have to get to baggage by catching a train. I got on, and made my way to baggage, picked up my two huge suitcases containing the contents of my life. Ok, this was totally crazy, I admit that. I was here in Atlanta, shutting a door on my past, to be with someone I had met over the internet and where was he? I didn't know a soul in Atlanta. I had no money to speak of, David had sent me a plane ticket. One way. What the heck HAD I BEEN THINKING? My mind racing....was he in an accident? Had he somehow changed his mind? Oh my god.......

I decided to go outside, wait near the street. Maybe I could see his van circling the airport. That new/used van he had told me about getting just YESTERDAY. I had seen the pictures of it on my computer. Dark blue, raised roof, wheelchair lift and they had outfitted it so he could drive from his wheelchair, without having to transfer to a driver's seat. I sat outside....looking, looking. Trying to breathe slowly, not panic. It was past two hours since I landed....suddenly I looked up. There he was! A huge smile on that beautiful face....a bouqet of yellow roses in his hands.....those incredible brown eyes with a twinkle in them, his wheelchair racing towards me. His apologies, explanations....how he had been trapped in the lockdown for the wheelchair in that new van...somehow they had wired it incorrectly and the manual release was something he could not reach. How finally he had been able to stop some old man walking to his car in the handicapped parking area. How he had arrived almost two hours early, had been trapped in that van for 4 hours, trying to find a way to get out. Worried sick about me getting off the plane and not finding him there.

Hugs, kisses, caressing each other's faces.......we had fallen in love in a chat room, on the phone, in our snail mail and email, we had waited, planned for 8 months...and at last......

The face to go with that incredible radio announcer voice. At last. I've never looked back,.... we were meant for each other and have been together for these past 12 years.....today I go to the mortuary to make arrangements for his cremation.