Dear JDate,

Glenn and I met on JDate about a year ago. We literally live on opposite sides of the globe. I live in Johannesburg in South Africa and Glenn lives in Calabasas, California. As you can imagine, the logistics of meeting for a first date over a cup of coffee were pretty daunting!

This is how our story began…

My mother joined JDate after hearing about it from a friend of hers who is also a widow. She posted her profile and purchased a 1-month Premium Membership just to try it out. After two weeks, she became bored and convinced me to try it out for the remainder of her month.

I had lost my husband two years prior, at a very early age, after 10 years of marriage and one beautiful son and I wasn’t sure if I was ready to move on. But I took her advice and posted my profile. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” My intention was to look in my area, or at least on the same continent, but fate had other plans for me.

I started my search and Glenn’s profile was the fourth one I looked at. His photo just spoke to me. His smile just touched me. As I read his profile I realized how similar we were. We had the same likes and dislikes. We both love to travel, we like the same foods, we both have very old-fashioned values and it seemed like a match made in heaven. I felt a deep spiritual connection and immediately decided to send him a message. I told him that I had loved his profile and that it was such a pity that we had a slight logistical problem that prevented us from meeting for coffee. He answered my email and we have been corresponding every day since.

After a month and a half I decided that I had to meet him in person, so I boarded three planes and traveled 24 hours half way across the globe to L.A. to meet the man of my dreams. He was everything that I imagined and more.

My friends and family still cannot believe that I had the courage to follow my heart to a completely foreign land, but I believe in seizing the day, especially after having lost a loved one so prematurely. I have since been back to L.A. three times and have had the opportunity to introduce my son Alex to Glenn and his family. It has not been easy being so far apart, but the distance and obstacles have just made our love stronger and deeper. We are now engaged and planning a beautiful wedding in L.A., just as soon as we can gather our entire family in one place.

I am so blessed to have found such an amazing, caring, generous and wonderful man to grow old with. He is my soul mate, my “beshert”. It’s funny how one’s direction in life can change in a single second. If Glenn had not been online at that very moment, I would never have had looked in America and probably would never have found him. It just shows how synchronicity plays a huge part in our lives.

Tips for other JDaters:
My advice to those searching for that perfect person is not to limit your search by restricting yourself to a specific geographic location. Have an open mind and a sense of adventure. You never know what might happen…you might just find what you are looking for!!!

Thanks JDate,

Samantha & Glenn
Calabasas, California