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Mara: I loved Charlie before I knew there was a Charlie. I Googled him into my life while doing research on my romantic comedy books. In July, 2000, I typed "English village parody" into a search engine, and up popped Charlie's web site, Wymsey. Charmed and utterly flattened by the copious amount of hilarious material, and attracted to the clean atmosphere, I lurked for a few months, then in October posted as Maragold in the Parish Notice Board. Lured out by The Management and a regular visitor called Surf, I started posting regularly. Not a fan of chat boards (I can't think fast enough on my feet, although my "stairway" bon mots are famous) I was fascinated by the esthetics of Wymsey, where women were treasured, sometimes to the point of being bronzed and placed on a high shelf, but always treated with tenderness. About this time, I was lonely, depressed and slightly ill, then I discovered an even bigger problem - writer's block. My full-time job had annihilated the nascent novelist in me, and I felt lower than a snake's bellybutton. I sent an email to Wymsey to say just that, and Charlie did something few people ever do: he replied promptly. With kindness and interest. It took three or four emails but finally the penny dropped. "Oh! YOU'RE Maragold!" I had neglected to tell him right off.... and didn't know he was only him and not a Contortium of gentle geniuses. He understood and forgave me, and we emailed daily, me going on in the most desperate and boring fashion about my lonely blocked writer's life, Charlie reassuring me I could cope and that he rather liked me. In mid-March he asked if he could telephone, I said Yes, and in that first call, nervous laughter, attraction and honesty prevailed. By April I was planning a visit to England, since I'd never been and he'd already seen New York, Chicago and Missouri! I fell in love with Charlie in fits and starts. He comforted me while I grieved my divorce, applauded my little successes at work and my handling of my son Sam. Between crying jags I realized how special Charlie was, so real and good I had to keep him, but I wasn't sure if I was up to it after two failed marriages. The visit in July was a bit of an experiment, yet in my heart I knew I was bound to him when he rushed the barrier at Heathrow "because (I) looked so scared." We spent ten days adoring each other, damn near dissolved on parting. Charlie planned a November trip to meet my family. Meanwhile, we emailed daily and he called me on weekends with the Onetel phone plan, 3p a minute, cheaper than taking me to the pub! if less satisfying than that beloved activity. In November 2001, Charlie met my family and popped the question. "Will you marry me missis?" he said, and him being so charming and having that sexy English accent, well I had to say yes, didn't I? Although there were doubts (I'm a world-famous worrier), there was no doubt that what I felt was not net lust, geek love or a crush, this was something big and strong. We parted again at San Francisco Airport, crying again but surer than ever that we'd be together till rivers ran dry and all those other infinite things. After that, we got busy! We Googled immigration FAQs and flats, and traded music, love notes and reading glasses over the Pond. I went to see his family in February 2002, and was greeted with great warmth and major curiosity, his people wanted to know who could get Charlie to fall in love again after years alone. We set a wedding date, visited the registrar, and rediscovered all the rituals of love and marriage, all in less than ten days! Now we are planning the wedding, with great joy. The Internet is taking care of most of the arrangements, friends and family are filling in the rest. Where younger people might freak out trying to pull this off while 9,000 miles apart, me and Charlie just laugh. Although the wedding is important, the marriage is more important. We check in every day with each other, to see if love is conquering all or only winning the minor skirmishes. In a way this is a very traditional courtship - we don't see each other as often as we'd like, yet we do communicate easily, building up the friendship within the passionate relationship. In this interim time, when it's easy to idealize things, we have to be more honest and practical than ever; this marriage means more than sharing a bog roll, since Sam and I are moving to England. I'm especially proud that Sam is good with Charlie and looking forward to the changes. There's photographic evidence they have potential to be happy under the same roof! There's also the small matter of them sharing a birthday, adding cosmic coincidence to this mutual admiration society's fundamental goodwill. Charlie: So, there I was by 2001 pretty much a well adjusted, theruped, middle aged man who had found a happy way of life. One who had come to be really at home with himself, had his geeky hobbies, liked to travel and who had accepted that his need for privacy was greater than most. A person who more and more took the world purely on his own terms and certainly not a person 'out there' looking for a partner! Nice picture, shame about the truth! Not exactly but there must have been a pretty big lump of me that was open to being loved and, as it transpired, I have also have a big lump of love to give. (God help me but I do think that there is some truth in this Yin & Yang stuff, man becomes whole with woman and woman with man.) Whatever & maybe, the fact is that I am a responsive person by nature (I had to learn to be an instigator) so happily responded to Mara's email request for help. For me, there was a shift in my interest in Mara when it clicked that she was the Maragold who had been posting to Wymsey's Parish Notice Board. Mara paints a good picture above of what happened from there on in. No one can say how the future will work out, all I can say is that being authentic rates for me as about the most important way of being and I know that is how we are with each other. I have never before experienced in relationship so much goodwill in myself towards a partner. I have long had a dream that as I got older I would be seen as a wise man, it may be that if any wisdom I have is directed towards my relationship with Mara then a wise man I will be! I have a lovely daughter who has grown up to be a wise and honest woman and I have also, like most men, always wanted to have a son - to experience that very special relationship. As someone who never experienced an affirming & loving father, who learnt about these things in therapy, I know I have a lot to offer Sam and in being his step dad wounds of my own will be healed. The Ring Boy: I am the ring boy, I am age nine. I like cats, and I have one cat, one fish, two tadpoles, and a MILLION snails. (All the snails that I got laid eggs so there are a LOT of eggs in the tank). I put my tadpoles in school for science, but they haven't developed legs yet although they have been there for MONTHS. The principal of my school is leaving this year. I told her I was moving to England, in a goodbye letter for homework. I think Charlie is nice. He has the same birthday as me. I think it would be really fun to move to England with him. Here is a story Sam told in honor of the occasion: Sam:I wrote a story about what might happen if Charlie doesn't take his motorbike to get the cake. Mara: Does something happen to the cake? Please say nothing happens to the cake! (Mara faints.) Sam: You sure faint a lot. This is the story - Charlie is in a taxi with his wedding cake going to the wedding. Then this fat guy and his dog get in the taxi. And then they start driving and after a while the driver hits a speed bump, and he was carrying a nacho cheese bucket and the cheese flew everywhere. The dog farted. Charlie got off the taxi and used the bus instead. Mara: Because of the dog, the cheese or the fat guy? Sam: No, because of the sumo wrestlers who got in and squished the cake. Mom? It's only a story!