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How I found my spouse: Couples share their love stories
By Julie Filby
One never knows where prayer might lead them to find Mr. or Ms. Right: the office, an Irish pub, or maybe the World Wide Web.
Tom and Linda: "Love at first click"
About six years after the death of his first wife, Tom, 59, (who preferred not to use his last name) decided he didn’t want to be alone. Putting the decision in God’s hands, he prayed: “If there’s another woman you want me to spend my life with, just bring us together.”
At the same time, Linda, 54, who had never married decided marriage might be in her future.
In 2004 both registered with the website www.CatholicMatch.com.
“I wanted to reach out again,” Tom said. “And for someone who’s in their 50s, the opportunities to meet Catholic women are pretty few and far between.”
Though initially skeptical about online dating, Tom was encouraged by friends who had met like-minded women online.
Linda was clear she was looking for someone “really Catholic—not in name only.”
“One thing I liked about CatholicMatch.com were the seven questions related to seven tenants of faith,” she explained. “That way I could find out right up front if this person had the same faith commitment.”
Liking what they read in each other’s profiles, a relationship began. The couple dated for three years, enjoying good times and enduring hardships together including family struggles, illnesses and deaths.
In 2005 when Linda traveled to California for what she believed would be her last visit with her ailing father, Tom insisted on joining her. Though she wasn’t considering marriage at that point, Tom wanted to ask Linda’s father for her hand in marriage.
They arrived at the hospital mid-morning. After giving the couple his blessing, Linda’s father died that afternoon.
In July 2007 the couple married at St. Mark’s Catholic Church in San Marcos, Calif.
“Our wedding was ‘the event of the century,’” Linda beamed. “It was a five-day celebration, really a blessing.
“I knew Tom was the man God wanted for me,” she said. “Since the day we got married, I’ve never stopped falling in love with him more every day.”
Tim and JoAnn: "Mother knows best"
Though they were working at different places, Tim and JoAnn Seaman credit their jobs and specifically, the intercession of the Blessed Mother, for bringing them together nearly 20 years ago.
In December 1991 Tim Seaman, 60, was marketing director for the Denver/Boulder Yellow Cab company. JoAnn, 44, was development director for Mother Cabrini Shrine in Golden, a position she still holds today after 22 years.
“We met during a time thousands of people were coming to the shrine to pray,” JoAnn said. “Due to large crowds, we couldn’t handle all the transportation.”
A representative from the shrine contacted Yellow Cab, who began shuttling pilgrims from Heritage Square to the shrine.
“The marketing manager got his team to donate their time, and over the next year they became part of the Cabrini family,” she said. “That director of marketing has been my husband for the past 17 years!”
The couple married at the shrine in July 1994. Their two daughters were baptized there as well.
“Tim had been praying to the Blessed Mother to find the right partner, and he’d been coming to the shrine since he was a child,” said JoAnn. “The grace and blessings people find at the shrine are real, and for us, to have begun our relationship there is a huge blessing.
“Our love and marriage are another manifestation of the love Mother Cabrini taught and continues to share.”
Sean and Wendy: "Running romance"
For newlyweds Sean, 28, and Wendy Curley, 34, praying for “a good Catholic spouse” and a common interest in running led them to each other.
The two met in 2008 at a running club at The Irish Snug near downtown Denver. Following the weekly 5k run, the Snug serves dinner. After making her way through the buffet, Wendy noticed there were no open tables.
“Except for one, where a mysterious, handsome young man and his friend were sitting,” she explained—the same young man she had chatted with briefly before the run started that night. “I didn’t want to sit there because it might look like I was stalking him.”
Reluctantly, she sat down and the table of young adults, all Denver transplants, chatted about what brought them to Denver. For Sean, it was an internship with Haselden Construction, where he is currently employed; and Wendy had been assigned as a FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) missionary for the University of Denver and Air Force Academy.
“Sean had been praying he would meet ‘a good Catholic girl,” Wendy said. “And I had been praying a daily rosary for my future spouse.”
The couple married last December at Holy Ghost Church in Denver.
“God has far greater plans than anything we could ever muster up ourselves,” she said. “Sean is exactly what I needed: he’s strong in the areas that I’m weak, and amazingly humble and genuine.”
Her new husband shared the sentiment.
“Wendy is the women of my prayers,” he said. “When I was praying for a good Catholic girl to date, I didn’t think God would provide such a strong and holy woman for me to spend the rest of my life with. God is good!”
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