15 Minute Window

I had gone to a chat room that night which I had been going to often in the past. It’s more of a support group than a chat room really. Almost everyone is single, true. And the intent is to hook people up for sure. But mostly it’s people with a common interest just chatting and like any other social group, sometimes connections are made. Over the many months that I had been visiting this chat room, I had gotten to know many of the regulars and that night I decided to pop in to just say hello. I was only there for 10 to 15 minutes. With only 4 or 5 people in the room, and no interesting conversation going on, I was about to sign off when she came in.

“Kikipotamus? What’s a Kikipotamus?” I thought to myself.  As I often did I opened another window to check the profile. No profile. Hmmm.

Everyone in the room said hello. She was kind and friendly to everyone. It became clear that a Kikipotamus was a female being of some type. She didn’t say much but when she did contribute it was clever.  She caught my interest quickly.  “A lot of Canadians in here tonight” she said.  I asked if she was in Canada, and where. She was, and she was not too far away.  I grew more interested. There was no profile for her, no age, no picture; all I knew was that she was a Canadian female. But I was drawn to her. We chatted a bit in the main chat room and when it was clear that she and I wanted to talk to each other only, I opened a private window and invited her to join me. We chatted privately for 15 or 20 minutes. It may have been longer, but it seemed to go by very quickly. We exchanged e-mail addresses and I told her I would send her an e-mail the next day.

Moments later I was composing a short message. This is the actual message, I kept every one of our early e-mails.

Hi Kelly,

Alright, so I couldn’t help it, I decided to e-mail you tonight.

Just wanted to make sure the e-mail works and to tell you again that I really enjoyed chatting with you.

I’ll write more when I’m sure I have your address correctly.

Talk to you soon,

Sylvain

And that’s how it began. Despite the fact that we should have both been in bed, several e-mails went back and forth that night. We were both clearly interested, and the excitement of a new potential relationship had gripped me. I spent many hours over the next few weeks reading her blog, learning more and more about her. She had lived a lot, and been through so much. My life seemed bland in comparison. Some things excited me, some things concerned me, and some were downright troubling. But if anything, it all made me want to know her even more. I decided to stop reading. I wanted to learn about her from her. I wanted her to paint the picture herself. I wanted to know who she was now, not who she had been.

We corresponded by e-mail and chat for a week or so and then progressed to the phone. Despite our different work schedules and her dislike of the telephone, we managed to schedule some calls. Her voice was so sweet and soothing, I always wanted more, but respected her limited capacity for phone conversation. There were some bumps early on, but overall, our relationship grew steadily. After a few months, on a day when I was feeling particularly courageous, I asked her if she was a risk taker. She said she was. I asked her to join me for a weekend away together in Niagara Falls.  Just two friends getting together, no pressure, no expectations. Of course we were both hoping that what seemed so wonderful in the virtual world, would carry over to the “real world”.  And wow, did it ever.

If you’ve been reading Kelly’s blog for a while, you know the rest of this story. If not, you can catch up here, here, and here on her blog, and here or here on mine.

So why am I telling you this story? Because remember that first meeting in the chat room? That fifteen minute window in time that changed the course of my life?

Well, that little miracle happened exactly one year ago, today.