So yesterday was an anniversary of sorts. It is the day I wrote Michael back.  

The story...

I had been out of town helping a friend set up a store she was opening and really hadn’t been able to check email. On my way back home I stopped at another friend’s home. I was telling her about an email I got before I left and said let me just pull it up and read it to you. While online at her house, I checked my email and there was an email from Michael. I was blown away by it because it was so REAL. When looking for a match online, it is usually email after email of nothing. They are the same three types of emails and none of them stand out from each other. But that was not the case with Michael’s email. Reading his email was truly refreshing. And so I had to answer him right away. I was gushing with my friend how great the email was and she was like “umm it is just an email Darby.” It just felt different to me. I knew this man was special.  

So that was November 17th, 2002 that I wrote him back at K’s house.  

From there we did several emails back and forth. And in the emails I found out he had dated a friend of mine. But they decided they were better as friends. She told him that she had a friend who would be a good match for him and I was that friend. She gave him my email address. He didn’t contact me for a while. But finally did after reading some things I wrote online he felt I was really a good match for him. But really this is his words - he thought I was out of his league so that he would never hear from me.  

I am not sure why he thought that because I am truly thankful he did write me. As my first instinct after reading his email to me was right - he was different and special. So I am truly thankful that 6 years ago Michael wrote a really extraordinary email that touched me so much that I couldn’t resist writing him back as soon as I read it.