The Beginning

Several people that know me best, and have known me for a long time, have asked with surprise in their voice why in the world I ever decided to look for a wife on the internet, and one 12,000 miles away on the other side of the world at that. I hope these next few paragraphs will answer that question for them and for any others who might be interested.
First though, I’m going to have to back waaaaay up and take a running start at this. Somewhere around 1995 when I was living in Fort Lauderdale I met a lady from the Philippines. I have always admired Asian women, and I always have had an interest in the Philippines, so when I first saw this girl she really caught my attention. Her clothing, make up, hair, everything was perfect. She was working in a club I frequented on occasion, and I guess that first time I saw her, I probably bought her a couple drinks, maybe had a table dance or two, learned her name was Manila, and that was about it. I think I saw her in that club one or two more times, and then she disappeared. A year, maybe two went by, and I found myself driving past a club in Pompano Beach that I had been in a few times, but never really cared much for. This time there was a bunch of new signs outside, “New Owners,” “New Attitude,” “New Girls.” Ok I thought, lets check this out. When I walked inside I spotted several girls that looked real good, so I went up to the bar and ordered a drink. When I finished paying I turned on my stool so I could see the stage, which was directly behind me. Standing between me and the stage was a girl I had not seen when I walked in. She had her back to me so I could not see her face, but I did see long black hair down to her waist, an absolutely perfect figure wearing a tight, short dress and standing on dangerously high heels. Among the other girls she stood out like a neon light in a field of candles. The very first thing I thought was “I’ll bet that’s the girl from that other club.” Sure enough it was her, but what amazed me the most, was that she remembered me to.
I ended up dating a couple of the other girls that worked there, and so I saw Manila fairly often. Over the years, I like to think we became friends. Often I would buy her a drink, and generally would end up asking a few questions about her country. I learned a little about how she grew up, how she met her husband, what life was like in a poor country. I remember many times thinking that would be a really nice thing, to meet and marry someone that had grown up like that.
During those years I got involved in a long term relationship with a lady, after a couple years we even purchased a home together. Within a few more years things were going from bad to worse, and I knew that I was going to get out. I had previously mentioned my problems at home to Manila, and then one day I was talking to her and told her I had already made plans to leave and as far as I was concerned it was as good as a done deal. I remember saying something about how lucky she and her husband were to have met each other in the short time he was in her country. I will ALWAYS remember her reply; she said “there are many ladies in my country who would love to have an American husband.” That one sentence, spoken by a lady who I had come to admire, is what brought me to do as I did.
A few weeks later there came a day when I had some extra time on the load I was pulling, and I was stopped early. I was on the internet and kind of bored. I had thought many times about what Manila had said, about there being many ladies in her country who would like to marry an American, and I did a Google search for “foreign brides.” I could not believe what I saw….literally hundreds of sites. I refined that to “Asian brides,” and the choices were thinned a bit, but there were still dozens of sites to choose from. I settled on FilipinaHeart, at the time they were the largest, having over 75,000 female members, all from the Philippines. They have a very good search engine, you can search by age, weight, height, smoker or not, drinker or not, children, almost any variable you could think of. I filled out my profile, paid my money, and started seriously looking. That first night I think I sent interest to about 4 or 5 ladies. I figured if I wrote 10 ladies, maybe one or two would respond back……WRONG. In the first week, I received over 200 unsolicited e-mails. I had also sent interest to about a dozen or so ladies I picked, and most of them wrote back as well.
I still remember the first time I saw Evelyn’s picture. It was on her FilipinaHeart profile. She was just getting on a bicycle, and was wearing a pair of baggy white shorts and a green tank top. She was sooooo beautiful. That big smile, the long black hair, she really made an impression, and I sent her a note of interest right away. Today I have a copy of that picture on the dash of my truck, where I can see it every day. Several days went by, the unsolicited responses were slowing down and my mail box was getting manageable. One day when I signed on I only had 3 or 4 e-mails saying “someone at FH is interested in you.” On opening that e-mail, it would say something like “Member # 1234567 is interested in you.” If you clicked on the member number you would go to that person’s profile. The last one I opened was Evelyn’s reply. I remember getting a big smile on my face when I saw “that girl on the bicycle” again. We began writing each other, and we both were writing to others as well.
The next time I saw Manila, I told her what I had done. She had told me before that the best girls could be found on Cebu, (I seem to remember her telling me…even wagging her finger at me, not to go to Manila because the girls were all to big city there, and with more severe finger wagging, she told me to stay out of the strip clubs)
I told her I was writing five girls, one was from Cebu. She asked the town, but all I could remember was that it was right near Cebu City, and was “Upper K…something.” I had by now told Evelyn about Manila as well, and she had wanted to know where she was from. As it turns out, Manila and Evelyn grew up only a few miles apart, both just outside Cebu City, and they are within a couple years of being the same age.
It wasn’t long before Evelyn and I became exclusive….she stopped writing her other interests and I told the other 4 ladies I was writing that Evelyn was the lady I was going to visit in January. (I still write to three of those ladies as friends) One of the things I was really looking forward to was taking Evelyn to meet Manila when she finally got to the states, because I really credit Manila for my having met Evelyn. About that time, Manila told me she and her husband were moving out of the country, but it probably would not be for a while yet, and I was still hopeful that she and Evelyn would meet.
There was some reason that two days later I went back to see Manila, I wanted to ask her something about the Philippines or whatever, and found out they had just sold their house…unbelievably fast…so would be moving in a very short time. I never did get to ask my question….I remember how sad I felt; partly because Manila and Evelyn would never meet…mostly because I knew I would never again see someone who I had become very fond of.
The last time I saw Manila was about August of 2004. I had by then purchased a new home and moved 100 miles North, to Fort Pierce, so I seldom got to my old haunts in the Fort Lauderdale, Pompano Beach area.
The months passed and finally January 10th, 2005 arrived. That was the day I was to catch my flight to the Philippines and meet Evelyn for the first time. We had pretty much decided we were getting married; we just had not made it official yet. I was to fly from West Palm Beach, to Atlanta, Los Angles, Hong Kong, then finally Macatan Island, Cebu. From there it was about a 30 minute cab ride to my hotel. I remember somewhere between Atlanta and Los Angles thinking of Manila. I thought, hey, it’s January, Manila and her husband take their vacation in January. Her family is from near Cebu City, wouldn’t it be something if I ran into her in the mall, or on the street somewhere. The thought made me smile, but I knew that the chances were close to zero of that happening; Cebu City is the second largest city in the Philippines, running into someone you know, 12,000 miles from home….not very likely.
Quite by chance I arrived in Cebu the week of Sinulog. That is the largest festival in the Philippines, and it might closely compare to our Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Sunday was the big parade. Evelyn, her friend Hazel and I were there about 8:00 AM when the parade was just starting. Evelyn and Hazel were standing right up by the metal barrier that kept spectators back off the street, and I, at 6’ 3” was standing behind, still with a very good view. I was busy taking photos when, about 10:00 AM, I felt a bump on my arm. I turned to find a very pretty girl, with a baseball hat and big sunglasses, standing there smiling at me. I figured she has just bumped me and we both turned at the same time to see what happened, I smiled at her and turned back to the parade. Saaaamak…..something hits my arm again….I turn to see the same pretty girl smiling at me….I give her back kind of weak smile, I’m thinking what’s with this girl….and turn to the parade again….I feel a hand on my arm, hear a familiar voice say “I know you from Floor-ee-da.” I stand there like a moron for a few seconds…then…the light bulb comes on…..MANILA…..well, she’s walking away pretty fast but I take off after her. She stops to look at something in the parade and I catch up, apologizing for not recognizing her, the hat, the glasses, etc, etc.
I finally remember I have a fiancée back in the crowd somewhere, and ask Manila to come meet her, as I say that, I turn and point in the direction where Evelyn is. There is a sea of faces, all watching the parade, and one face, watching us. I’m sure she is wondering what in the world her fiancée is doing chasing another woman through the crowd. Evelyn and Manila got to talk for a couple minutes, but she and her husband were going to meet someone and had to leave. I was very happy though, that Evelyn and Manila had finally got to meet each other.
Evelyn had a cousin who helped us cut a little of the governmental red tape involved in getting married, and the following Friday afternoon he called us at our hotel and told us our wedding would be that next Monday at 6:00 PM in the hotel we were staying at. The judge who married us actually brought our wedding license with him when he came to do the ceremony. We spent Friday and Saturday morning arranging for a wedding cake, a photographer, and all the things associated with a wedding. By about noon on Saturday we stopped at a Shakey’s Pizza for lunch. This was about a block from our hotel, right on Osemena Circle in Cebu City. Now who do you suppose walks by the window and waves at us..?? Yup…Manila and her husband Brad were walking by and saw us sitting there. I motioned them to come in and they did. We talked a couple minutes and I asked them to come to our wedding on Monday.
Monday came….I had been single for 22 years after a ten year marriage, and I admit I was more than a little nervous, as I’m sure Evelyn was.
Evelyn and I, and a couple others were in our hotel room getting ready when someone says, “Hey, we better get upstairs; it’s two minutes to six.” We were staying on the 6th floor, and our wedding ceremony was on the 8th floor. We walked to the elevator and pushed the up button. An elevator comes up, the door opens, and there stand Manila and Brad. Manila is wearing two wreaths of very colorful flowers. She immediately took one off and put around Evelyn’s neck, they gave each other a big hug, and upstairs we went.
Things had worked out better than I could have hoped for in my wildest fantasy. I married the most wonderful girl in the whole world….and at the wedding was the friend who I feel was responsible for us meeting.
Manila, I never will be able to thank you enough. What you told me over the years about your country, of how you grew up and of your culture, and what I know of the kind of person you are, is what convinced me to take a chance on meeting someone on the internet. I could not be happier that I did.
There was one problem with having Manila at our wedding though….as soon as she walked in the room, both photographers and the video photographer totally forgot about the wedding….
Here is a link to our wedding photos…..http://www.pbase.com/mongo69