I’ve pretty much told everybody that this has been the easiest relationship I’ve ever had in my life. From that first night we met, it was very easy – Kristy

What were your dating lives like before joining The Right One?

Kristy: Very minimal. I did some online dating, but not much. I was a single mom and I didn’t like spending time away from my son.

David: Non-existent. I wasn’t into the bar scene and I was fairly busy. I did a little bit of online dating, but people’s honesty on the computer is not very good.

Kristy, did you have any opinions about matchmaking services before signing up with The Right One?

I had actually used The Right One several years ago and it was good.

David, what inspired you to sign up with The Right One?

I found The Right One online, but I didn’t know what it was. I thought it was just another online dating service.

What did you particularly like about working with the people at The Right One?

Kristy:  I felt safe, there was the background check. Everybody seemed to be pretty much on the same page. I never had any problem with myself or the other individuals being very honest about it when it just didn’t feel right or we weren’t really interested. Instead, we could decide not to pursue this because it wasn’t like being set up with someone through a friend. There were no ties, that part I liked, but I didn’t like the number of guys I had to meet before I found David.

Kristy, how many referrals did you meet or talk to before you met David?

The second time I used the service, David was either my fourth or fifth introduction.

David, what did you particularly enjoy about the interview process with The Right One?

Everybody is on the same page; everybody is after the same thing, the end result. They cut through the preliminary hassle; everybody knows what their ultimate goal is going into this. You’re looking for a life partner--it’s not just random dates. Kristy is more of a “people person” than I am and I have a hard time meeting people. I work a lot of hours and I’m busy most of the time. I don’t have a lot of time for unnecessary socializing. Kristy was my third referral.

What was your first date like?

Kristy: I was just feeling a little disheartened about the whole thing. I was really busy with my career and focusing on finding more of a father for my son and I’d given up a bit on that, the ideal situation that people talk about. It was one of those things where I set up another date and I was going to go out and do this, but I didn’t have high hopes or expectations. I just thought it was going to be another date and hopefully I’d have a good supper and go home.

But I got there and he was a pretty good-looking guy, and very nice. We just seemed to hit it off and we were able to talk pretty easily. I didn’t have to force anything. I’ve pretty much told everybody that this has been the easiest relationship I’ve ever had in my life. From that first night we met, it was very easy.

He was entertaining, funny, and very intelligent. I could have a conversation with him, which is something I struggled with, with a lot of other guys I met. They were almost impossible to carry on a conversation with and I didn’t have that problem at all with David.

David: I thought she was cute. We had dinner and 1½ hours later, she was out of babysitter time and we had to go. It felt like we had been there for only 10 minutes; it went very, very quick. She’s a very pleasant, intelligent lady.

She has a good career and is far more intelligent than I am. She’s very devoted to her son and family. Hey, she wasn’t nuts!

Kristy, what was the proposal like?

We’d been having some generalized discussions about what we wanted from life and what we anticipated or saw happening. It wasn’t just out of the blue; I had an idea. One night we were just talking and I don’t even remember how the conversation started, but he smiled at me and said, “You know I’m going to ask you.” And of course I was just like: “Yes!”  He proposed to me and took me ring shopping on my birthday. That was a pretty special day.

How long had you been dating when you got engaged?

Kristy: Two months. Other than that first date we went on alone, I don’t think we had another date alone until after we got engaged. We always had one of the kids with us or we were doing something with the family.

Kristy, how do you all spend your time together now as a family?

Dave drives race cars, and my son who is five now will start driving race cars or go-karts too, so that’s where a lot of our family activity stuff is, as well as just family time and doing things together. Going to the movies or spending time at home is about as much of a treat as anything.

What future plans do you have as a family?

Kristy: I think raising all the kids is huge. I think just getting to spend our time together and getting to know each other better is probably one of our most immediate goals.

Dave: There are three things that come to mind for me: One, trying to combine two entire households; two, we want to put an addition on the house; three, go to Greece in a year.

Do you have any advice for someone who might be considering joining The Right One?

Dave: It seems like an expensive outlay, as it’s fairly pricey, especially for someone on a limited income, but it was well worth the money for me. Be honest with yourself is probably the biggest thing.

Kristy: That is probably the biggest thing really, that soul-searching at the beginning. The reason this thing works is because everybody is in it for the same reason. Their heart is in it at that point in time to have a true lifelong goal of marriage or whatever. So if you’re not there yet and just want to date, it’s probably not going to work so well. It’s not the same kind of tool as the bar scene, going out to meet somebody for the fun of it. That’s not at all what the service is about.

Once I took hold of his hand, it was like everybody just melts away like in the movies where the couple just swirls up into the air and I’m hearing, “I love you and I want to marry you.” - Becky

What were your dating lives like before joining The Right One?

Becky: How does “nil” sound?

Steve: I’d had just one or two dates. I hadn’t been widowed too long at the time.

When you did meet, how many others had you been referred to through The Right One?

Becky: Steve was my first referral.

Steve: She would have been my third name or the second date; one, we just talked on the phone and didn’t decide to meet.

Becky, what was your opinion of Internet dating sites before you signed up with The Right One?

I thought a lot of the guys on there were just after somebody who is a size 8 and looks better than they do. I hadn’t had good success with them at all.

What inspired you to try a matchmaking service?

Becky: It was interesting because I knew I wouldn’t find somebody online, but I thought: I’m going to check this group out, what the heck, what do I have to lose? I want to find out about this and see if it’s any good. I went online and gave my phone number and they called me, and after that there was no more online and I liked that. I liked the personal touch.

Steve: They cold-called me; mine was just a phone call asking if I was single and that was my reference. I had no point of reference prior to that. I was open.

What did you particularly like about the interview process?

Becky: The person I met with was very personable and willing to share and made me feel very comfortable. I was apprehensive when I first went in, but after I talked to her for a while the apprehension left and I could communicate my thoughts, desires and needs.

Steve: They were sensitive; they were asking me several questions about the timing of my wife’s death, rather than just trying to get me to sign up for something to get the money. I was impressed with the testing and the interview part. I was just interested to see what it was because of what they said. I was open and I wasn’t not going to sign up, but I sure hadn’t thought about doing it that much prior to the phone call and interview. They wanted to make sure I was ready before we even started filling out the papers. I wasn’t interested in the bars and local scene, that wasn’t where I was coming from.

Becky: I think I can echo what Steve says, and they were very thorough. Before they let me do anything and before they even told me what the cost was or anything like that, we talked about how long it had been since Brad had died and how I was feeling about getting back into the dating scene.

Steve, what inspired you to contact Becky?

Just whatever information they had there just appealed to me right off the bat. I just had a personal gut feeling about it more than what was actually in there, because there wasn’t that much information.

Steve, what did you do for your first date?

We went to Red Lobster and had lunch.

Becky, what was your first impression of Steve?

I thought he was a good-looking guy. I just thought it might be nice to talk to him.

Steve, what was your first impression of Becky?

I thought she was attractive, neat, and I don’t know how they matched us that well, but she was what I was looking for. I just felt good from the very beginning of this relationship. It just looked like really where I needed to go.

Becky, what do your friends and family think about how the two of you met?

If they ask us how we met, we tell them and they say, “Oh, interesting!” I never got a negative reaction. I was clear with people that we didn’t meet blindly. There was sufficient testing and checking; it wasn’t just someone saying they were something that they weren’t. I make sure people understand that. I was not interested in somebody trying to convince me they were something. I knew somebody else checked things out and the interview part was the most valuable part of this whole thing for me, and the background checks.

What was the proposal like?

Becky: We had dated a while and I decided we were just too much alike and we would never make it. So in May I informed him of that, and I was very good at getting my point across. He was almost ready to hang everything up but he had promised to be my friend, so he wasn’t going to quite let me get out of his life.

Our church has an annual conference once a year and they were doing a memorial service; they do a memorial service every year for the pastors and spouses who have died. I told Steve as his friend I would be there, because I remember what it was like when they did Brad’s service, because my husband had also been a pastor. Steve had gone back three times looking for me and the dinner I was at had gone over time so I was a little late, but I wasn’t late for the service.

I sat with him and his mom. I thought that when they were doing this service for Brad, it would have been nice for somebody to hold my hand. Without thinking that we hadn’t had more than just a polite hug between the two of us--we’d talked a lot but there hadn’t been much physical contact--I just grabbed hold of his hand. That was it. Once I took hold of his hand, I don’t know what the guy was saying that was speaking, it was like everybody just melts away like in the movies where the couple just swirls up into the air and I’m hearing, “I love you and I want to marry you.” And I’m looking around trying to figure out who is talking.

Steve: Our first lunch was nearly four hours, not just a five-minute “in and out.” She just inspired me to get more done. She was someone who lit my fire to get going. We agreed we would stay friends because I knew I had made a friend for life from the beginning; we have so many similarities. The matching was perfect in that sense, though a lot of the things that are similar in our lives weren’t on the test or in the questionnaire.

I had taken my mom with me that day and I just knew right there that that was it. I just felt comfortable with that. I just knew we were going to get married from that minute on. We both knew that and we just felt it together.

I never considered trying to meet somebody over the Internet. That wasn’t an option for me. But the way this was done was a very complete way and a very comfortable way. I tell people the similarities in our life: Emotional situations, loss of spouses, and loss of children. In our ceremony at the wedding, we acknowledged, we had pictures of both our husband and wife and our two children. Becky wrote a special part for that and the pastor read that and we shared the flowers with the family members that were there from the loved ones that had passed on.

We’re able to deal with that on the same emotional basis. It’s a strengthening thing and not a weakening thing for us. We didn’t replace that person, but we didn’t die with that person when they died. God gave us life to continue on. That was good and that allowed us to continue. And the more we find out about each other, how much more it is just what it’s supposed to be.

You two were married last summer?

Steve: We got married six weeks from that date.

Becky: That was June 7th that we fell in love, and we were married July 12th.

Wow! When did you actually meet?

Becky: February 4th.

What is your life like now? How do you like to spend time together?

Becky: We started going to the parks and walking around and watching nature and spending time like that, which was real meaningful for both of us. We continue to have a date night every week and because we have other commitments, we have to be apart some. We have more than one residence right now, so that’s a challenge but we’re able to work through that. We’re both very busy when we’re apart so the time doesn’t go slowly. We only talk to each other four or five times a day!

Steve: We also cruised to Alaska with our family for our honeymoon in August.

Becky: It was wonderful.

Do you have any advice for people who are considering joining The Right One?

Becky:  One of the ladies in my church, she’s been widowed a couple of years and I referred her. I told her about Steven and I, and I think that when she heard a success story she was more inclined to do something like that. So I think I would just say: “Try it, you never know what you’re going to find or where you’re going to find a person.” If you don’t go through a reputable service like The Right One or you just go online, check them out, Google them, do a person’s report or something. It’s worth the money you pay.

Steve: For me, the other thing about the process here was that we were both ready to move on in our life and we were looking to have someone special in our life. You’ll see somebody who might be attractive to you for whatever reason or someone you meet in an organization similar to yours, but that person may or may not be at that point in life that they’re ready. They were checking with us for that beforehand and then we were put together with someone where we didn’t have to go through the part of, “Well, I don’t know if I want to date yet or have a relationship yet,” that kind of thing. That was very refreshing and good. I think that was a real plus in the program.

Any closing comments?

Becky: It’s been great, and our friends and family have embraced both of us and that has been a good thing. It was fast, but it felt like forever between the time we fell in love and got married. After I came to the point where I decided that I would like to get married again, I said, “I don’t want to mess around with dating and everything, I just want to find somebody and know that’s it and get married,” and that’s what I did.

The Right One saves a lot of heartache and a lot of pain.

“I knew it on the first date that she was the one I wanted to be with. I never said anything to her because I was afraid I would scare her off. I waited until the second date.” - Ron

Before you joined The Right One, what were your dating lives like?

Ron: Zero, zip and nothing. I never tried any other dating services, not having a computer or anything.

Sandy: I had a couple of dates through some other services, online dating. They’re a joke. I did a lot of it for laughs. I went out on a couple of dates and we had really nothing in common. I had also done eHarmony and actually they ask the same amount of questions that The Right One did, almost the same questions, as a matter of fact. But I still got just any old Joe Blow down the block. It didn’t match you.

What inspired you to join The Right One?

Ron: I had seen signs around town and having no computer, I went up to the local library and they helped me out to get online with it. Then from there they had the folks notify me by phone or mail.

Sandy: I did it as a lark really. I figured I’d give it a shot, as I’d tried everything else and I was still dating online.

What did you particularly enjoy about the interview process with The Right One?

Ron: They were very friendly there and very thorough. I know they do a thorough background check on everyone.

Sandy: I felt very comfortable talking to them.

Ron, what inspired you to make contact with Sandy?

Oh, I tried to contact all of them they sent to me, and some of them never responded to anything. She didn’t at the time because she was busy, but she did call back later on and we talked and set up our first date.

Tell me about your first date.

Sandy: We met at Bakers Square and we had lunch there. Then we went to a flea market, followed by a walk through the mall. We just kept walking and talking and getting to know each other. We went to a couple of different parks and just enjoyed the day. It was beautiful weather and everything.

So how long was your first date? It sounds like you covered a lot of ground both literally and figuratively.

SEVEN hours: 1:00 in the afternoon to 8:00 at night.

Sandy, what was your first impression of Ron?

He was too old.

Did you know how old he was before you met him?

It was on the paper but I figured, “Oh, I’ll give it a shot.”  But all I kept thinking about was that he was so much older than I expected. I ended up the date with: “He is still too old.” But he was very easy to talk to and I just enjoyed being with him.

Ron, what was your first impression of Sandy?

I thought she was a very beautiful lady. We agreed to meet at Bakers Square, separate vehicles of course.  She parked the second car over from me. The minute she got out of the car, she smiled at me and waved to let me know it was her. I was just completely at ease at that moment. I had been nervous up to that point but after that, I was just completely at ease.

What do your friends and family think of how the two of you met?

Ron: My family is glad that things worked out and I’m happy now. They accept her and her family.

Sandy: My two sons have both done the same thing. I don’t know what service they used but they both did it for their second wives.  So they couldn’t say too much about it.

I understand you both met only one other person through The Right One. Sandy, when did you know that Ron was a keeper?

I had a friend at work who kept telling me, “He’s a keeper, he’s a keeper.” But I feel that it was the second date. It was the fact that he was such a gentleman and he cared about things I was doing. He wasn’t into himself. He wanted to know what I wanted to do all the time.

What about you, Ron? When did you know that Sandy was a keeper?

It’s difficult to say in a way, but I knew it on the first date that she was the one I wanted to be with. I never said anything to her because I was afraid I would scare her off. I waited until the second date. We started talking about what we wanted in life and we both wanted to get remarried and everything like that. And started discussing what we like to do, where we like to go and all of that. And 85% of it was the same thing for each other.  As she said, we’re both soul mates for each other.

Ron, what was the proposal like?

We had been dating for approximately a month and we had talked about it throughout the dating process and we both wanted to get married. I just asked her one evening at dinner if she would marry me and she said yes. So we went shopping for a ring a couple of days afterwards.

Sandy: Actually I think I was surprised but I immediately answered yes.

What are your lives together like now? How do you like to spend your time together?

Ron: We still like to go for walks and we love to shop and we just love to laugh and have fun together.

Do you have any advice for others who might be searching for love through The Right One?

Sandy: You have to at least give it a try. It definitely works. I feel I’ve met my soul mate. He isn’t just my husband; he’s my soul mate. We have so much in common and every day we find something new that we have in common with each other. Like right now, over Halloween, we found out that we enjoyed the same candy bars even.

Ron: Give it a try and don’t just stop at one date and say, “It’s not worth it.” Go out two or three times or more; it might take a lot longer for some people. But for us, it was basically love on the first date.