Where did Dennis come from?

10 years ago today, (and 2 years after my first husband passed away), I received in my inbox from LDS Singles Online a paragraph of introduction. Just a paragraph, but I could tell he was different, and I was intrigued.

This man could write in complete sentences and he had perfect grammar, spelling and punctuation. Not that I judge people on how they write...I certainly make tons of mistakes in this department, and for the most part I don't even care.

But quite frankly, while I "met" many men online (although not in person) this was the only one who seemed immediately intelligent. Most men are intelligent, I don't mean to imply they aren't...but most online just do not take the time with their emails.

So I was interested. I wrote back. He wrote back. Good, this was fun.

Then less than 2 weeks into this daily exchange, he asked me for my phone number.
Hey, wait a minute...I only "knew" him for 2 weeks. I wanted a lengthy relationship online before I was to actually talk to him. So I wrote and told him this was too soon, I was not ready to talk to him yet.

He wrote a very polite, sweet email back basically telling me that if I didn't give my phone number to him, it was goodbye.

My best friend Peggy, in West Valley, Utah was with me through all this.
She knew I was interested in this man.
She knew I didn't want to let this one go.
She was also the one who after reading some of his emails had said to me, "You need to reel this one in very slowly and gently." Plus since Dennis was a cop for LAPD, Peggy would say, "You know the egos cops have. They're worse than Marines."

So when I called her so confused after the ultimatum he gave me....she listened to my long list of emotions and then just flatly said, "Oh, just give the BIG BABY your phone number."

So I did.

The first time he called I was home but I couldn't bring myself to pick up the phone. I wasn't ready. Besides, I wanted to hear his voice first and think about it for awhile.

Oh my goodness....when I HEARD his VOICE....I called Peggy and played it over the phone for her to hear. Can you believe how he sounds??! She didn't seem too impressed. I guess he just sounded like a generic man to her. She was also not too happy that I didn't just pick up the phone and TALK to him.

Okay, so I made a list of possible questions to ask him, possible things to talk about so there wouldn't be any pauses in the conversation. He had left me a few phone messages by now asking me to call him back on his toll free number, but I didn't. I wanted him to be the one to call me. Which he did, I realize that, but I wanted him to keep calling me until I was ready to pick up the phone.

Finally, I was ready. I grabbed my list and answered the phone. I found out several months later that he also had a list prepared and ready.

He was easy to talk to. I was impressed with his soft spoken voice, and his confidence. We had a few conversations and then he asked if he could take me out. A date? You mean we would actually see each other? This was 10 years ago when dating someone you met on the internet was considered freaky.

I had been discussing all of this with my home teacher, Tim. He said he would call Dennis' bishop and see what he thought of him. So my home teacher reported back to me and said his bishop spoke very highly of Dennis, in fact he was one of his counselors.

Dennis was in the bishopric as a single man? That's a rarity. He must be good, I thought.
2 months later he drove the 4 hours to my home. I'll continue this story on Dec. 11th, which will be the 10th anniversary of our first date.

Okay, here comes my favorite part.
Den would tell me later that he would often think of me (before he even knew I existed) when he heard this song, during his 5 year search for me.