It Began With a Wand and Was Interrupted by Death

Maybe I should've started with how we met, given you our story first. That would make sense, to begin at the beginning, then move the story along into his death and my grief. It seems grief needed to have its say first, to be purged before allowing me to go back in time and fill in the details. Grief will have its say some more, but now, it's time for J and me.

I choose the word "interrupted" or "interruption," because it's not the end of us, the end of our story, the end of our love. Our story will also need more than one post to tell, so let me begin the telling of it. If anyone asked us how we met, how it all began, we'd answer: "It all started with a wand." Unable to help ourselves, we break down, laughing until our sides ache and wiping away the tears streaming down our faces. It was a Wednesday night, October 25th, 2010 to be exact, on Facebook (referred to as FB from now on). It was chat night for an FB writers group we belonged to.

I had seen his name in the group before. I had read his articles on, what was then, Associated Content, now Yahoo! Contributor Network. There had been other chat nights, but we'd never been in it at the same time, or if we were, I was coming while he was going or vise versa. I thought he didn't even know who I was. I also thought that even if he did...no way would he ever be interested in me.

Writers love to play with words and that night was no exception. As usual, the conversation evolved, or devolved might be a better word, into the realm of double entendre. The conversation involved talk of magic and magic wands made of wood. Once we started talking directly to each other in chat, words flew fast and furious. The rest of the world fell away for both of us. Our fellow writers ceased to exist. We saw no one except each other.

We took our talking off to FB messages that night and for a couple of days, then needing and wanting to talk directly to each other, we moved to Yahoo! chat. We exchanged phone numbers soon after and split our time between hour upon hour of talking online, and talking on the phone. About two weeks or so after that Wednesday night chat, we set our FB relationship status.

It might seem quick to some, even impossible to feel what we did never having met each other, but we felt a bond with each other from the start. We felt as if we'd known each other for years instead of days. Both of us felt as if the missing piece of us had finally come home. There was no doubt in our minds that we had fallen in love, fallen quite hard. Neither of us cared what people thought. No one has ever said anything to me, but I know many people think it's impossible to love someone you've never met. Think it's impossible to have a long distance relationship, but we proved them all wrong and showed it is possible and it is very, very real.

Thus ends how it began. Stay tuned for our first, and only year, with each other, along with a more intimate look at our lives.