- Love, budded, blossomed, bloomed.

I was lonely a long time.

Divorce has a way of making the house seem bigger, quieter, and the hum of the refrigerator often felt judgmental as well.

I was convinced that, been alone for quite a long time.

I was convinced that that's just the way the rest of my life was going to go.

It was pleasant, but solitary.

I was talking to my daughter, my water, my daughter one evening, and she said, "Dad, let's make you a dating profile."

So there I sat on this porch with my daughter as we curated my Romantic Future.

She helped pick out the pictures and helped me edit my bio.

And with a click of a button, I was out there in the digital sea of humanity on match.com.

So there were some dates, some nice dinners, some polite conversations, some misrepresentations, and some best of luck to you.

I sent a message just hello to this one real pretty lady's profile, thinking that I'd never get a chance with her, swipe left.

But then I found myself elated while I was messaging this pretty, witty, thoughtful, somewhat guarded lady.

And first thing she said to me was, "What made you smile today?"

So that just blew me away, the positivity of it all.

So I began to get my smile back.

So we kept chatting and I kind of asked her, I said, "What are you looking for in a partner?"

So she rattled off a few things and qualities that were important to her and came to the conclusion that evidently I'm looking for a unicorn.

Well, I didn't know her very well yet, but I sensed her reply was half heartbreak and half hope.

So I asked her, I said, "Well, maybe we'll be each other's unicorns."

She later confessed that she chuckled when she read that and said, "Yeah, right."

So texting became the phone calls and we settled on our first date.

It was a Friday, December 8th in 2023.

Saturday before that, we were on the phone and she was telling me a story I'd never forget about a squirrel, not just any squirrel, but a squirrel, a huge squirrel with long teeth and claws.

It had gotten in through her attic into her bedroom while she was getting ready for work that morning and was wrecking havoc as it's going across the couch up the Christmas tree, down the Christmas tree, into the blinds, and it was getting wrapped into the cord.

She thought for sure that morning there was going to be a squirrel tragedy before coffee.

So thinking about Christmas, she really loved Christmas.

You can tell it in her voice, the Christmas ornaments that she collected, the Christmas ornaments that she made, the decorations and the joy of it all.

So that night when we hung up off the phone, I decided I'd go to Amazon and try to find a squirrel ornament.

I found the perfect one.

It was an old world Christmas ornament and I ordered it just before midnight.

And to my surprise, it was on my doorstep by 80 AM as if Amazon was taking part in some type of destiny.

Well, unicorn powers seem to be loading.

Later that day we were texting and to my surprise she said, "Hey, can we move our date up to Monday?"

"Yeah, sure, sure we can.

"So I knew Tuesday happened to be her 50 and fabulous birthday party, so I just had to go get her a card, but not any card, I wanted a unicorn card.

Well, do you know how hard it is to find an appropriate unicorn card for a 50-year-old woman?

Well, it's a sea of glitter and rainbows and pastel color cartoon ponies for seven-year-old girls.

So I was kind of giving up and I turned the corner and there it was, a more sophisticated card.

There was a gold unicorn at top and row and row and row of gray ponies.

And it said," You are a unicorn in a sea of ponies.

"I was like," Wow.

"So I opened it up inside and it said," Happy golden birthday.

"So I stood there in the aisle and said," Somebody's orchestrating something here.

"Unicorn powers again.

So I made sure that I was arriving early to the dinner date and she pulled up next to my truck and she got out wearing this real pretty dress, I'll never forget, those really tall white boots and a smile that just kind of took my breath away.

And she was even more stunning in person.

So at that point I handed her the bag and said," Happy birthday.

"She thought, well, probably a bottle of wine or something and she opened it up, got the card and was amazed.

Then she went for the Christmas ornament thinking it was just a generic Christmas ornament, maybe a Santa Claus or a snowman or something.

And when she saw the squirrel, she just busted out laughing.

Half the light probably and probably half trauma.

So we proceed into our date and the dinner was easy.

It was warm.

It was comfortable.

But at the end of the date, I was walking through the car and I was being kind of forwarding and I leaned in for a quick pet goodbye.

We kind of missed.

So I was kind of embarrassed, but half-wittingly I said," Can we do a do-over?

"So she laughed and well, we did better.

She invited me to her 50 and fabulous birthday party, which was the next night.

So that was either a very good sign or maybe a public way of eliminating someone quickly.

So I searched for... I didn't have much time, so I searched for a florist nearby on the way to the venue and I called them up and said," Hey, do you have something really pretty and special that I can get out of display case in a hurry for a Fabulous and 50 birthday party for my second date?

"The owner said," Oh no, we're going to do a whole lot better than that.

"And they sure did.

I got there and it was this big, huge, colorful bouquet that was so big you could practically hide behind it.

So I get early to the venue again.

I'm getting in my car.

The phone rings.

She's calling.

I though myself," Oh my gosh, is she canceling on me?

"So she sounded stressed.

She's running late from work and is going to be late for her own party, which I found out later was pretty typical.

So I asked, I said," Is there anything I can do to help?

"So there was a pause.

She said," Really?

"I said," Yeah.

"She goes," Can you go to Target and get me a pair of blackshear hose?

""Well, guys, if a woman on your second date asked you to go get hosiery, you go do it."

So Target was up the street.

I go to Target.

The shells where the hosiery is, it's all disarray and half empty.

There's nothing there.

So I run over to Kohl's.

Well, Kohl's doesn't even sell hosiery, I found out.

So now I failed at my first crisis.

Well, fortunately she was able to find something suitable that she had at home that did the trick.

So again, she pulled up beside my truck and I get out with this big, beautiful bouquet and I saw a smile on her face and her face softened.

It looks like the stress and the worry and the rust had kind of just eroded from her countenance.

And she said, "You didn't have to do that.

You got me the ornament."

Well, I'm not going to show up for a fabulous and 50 birthday party empty-handed.

So we go inside the party.

I don't know anybody because her and I just met.

And so I'm chatting politely with her friends and she's mingling around with all of her friends and we look at each other every now and then and we smile, but she happened to notice I was standing alone there for a minute.

She comes up, puts her hands on my shoulder and kisses me right there in front of God and everybody.

At that point I knew and I got my smile back.

So driving home that night, I was pretty bold.

So I sent her a romantic love song called The Joy of My Life by Chris Stapleton.

I said, "Well, this might be too forward too soon.

Well, we'll see."

Well, about that same moment, she did the same thing.

She sent me a romantic love song.

So we kept dating.

There was long conversations until the wee hours of the morning where we're talking about what to do for New Year's Eve.

I said, "Let's go to New York."

So we're walking around Manhattan and we turned the corner and there were these Macy's Christmas windows and the ones she'd seen her whole life in parades and in movies and she stopped, tears filled her eyes and running down her cheek.

She explained that growing up in the deep south that she always wanted to see those windows, but they though there were other people that are inaccessible to her and she though she'd never be able to see them.

So a subconscious thought rising up to the surface right there on the sidewalk had her overcome with emotion.

So I though, if I were ever to propose to her, it would be right there.

Months later, I planned a trip back to New York.

I hired a professional photographer in secret.

I memorized my proposal after the Thanksgiving Day parade.

I suggested we go look at this year's version of the Macy's Christmas windows.

I get there and disappointment rushed in as the barricades and all the scaffolding was blocking the windows as they were just tearing it down because of the TV crews and things there.

So I was kind of in a panic.

I've only hired a photographer for an hour, so we had a pivot.

Across the street was Harold Square, big iron fence surrounded the park.

The iron gate was wrapped in Garland.

It had gold bows on it, big shiny Christmas ornaments.

I though this was perfect.

Unicorn powers again.

I got down on one knee, she said yes.

A crowd of onlookers taking pictures with her cell phone and applauding were the first to celebrate the joy of our commitment to share our life together.

Six days later, we eloped to the Cavalier Hotel in Virginia Beach, which was the one year anniversary of our first date.

My beautiful bride carried this real pretty white bouquet of flowers made by the same florist that made that big bouquet on her birthday the year before.

And today we're building a life together in Williamsburg.

So my friends, sometimes love is like trying to launch a rocket where it needs a lot of energy to get off the ground.

Other times it buds quietly, blossoms unexpectedly and if you are brave enough to believe in unicorns, it blooms.

Sitting right over there, my unicorn?

Captain Gillespie.

Thank you.