A Love Letter To Howard

To celebrate Valentine’s Day, we asked Patch readers to write a love letter to that special someone and let us deliver it. This is Joanna Konecny’s story about her boyfriend, Howard:

“Plenty of Fish (POF) is a dating site for people looking for everlasting love, companionship, friendship or just plain conversation. As an online phone app, it lets people contact each other from the comfort of their own beds.

It was the night of December 7, 2016. I was feeling lonely and just wanted some good old-fashioned conversation. Not looking for anything else, I went online to search. My profile on the website said “platonic friend” and that’s what I was setting out to find. With only a hello and my name, I reached out to a man who caught my eye. In 10 seconds he reached back and said hello. I read his profile, and he seemed normal and nice, but I missed the fact that he was separated and in the middle of a divorce. The first thing my mind was telling me was, Run, Forrest, but we engaged in conversation.

I was forthright with the many reasons why we could only be friends and why thoughts of more could go no further. After talking for a while that night, I told him there were drawbacks to continuing this friendship: a difference in age, his young children, his marriage status and the fact he lived over an hour away from me were some. I even told him he was such a nice guy that I wanted to see him with a nice woman and to run them all by me so I could pick a good one for him. We laughed, and the nights grew into months as the addiction for each other’s time grew as well.

On January 2, 2017, flowers showed up at my door for my birthday from this newfound friend whom I had never met. I sat and cried because no one had ever done that for me before. He made me feel so special -- how could I not like him? He was handsome, intelligent and kind.

We ended up conversing until February, and then decided it was time to meet. I used many excuses to push him away because of fear. We got to know every facet of each other’s life, but meeting was the scariest to me. In the process of losing weight I felt self-conscious and I thought I was not good enough for this unseen man I have grown to like so much.

Well, we met. Call it crazy, but I had enough deep trust for him that I invited him to my home to pick me up for dinner. With so much to say through the months, at dinner I was like a silent bird with no words. I was so nervous that this poor guy had to engage the entire conversation. I did not think I would see him again after that disastrous date, but he did come back again and again until our relationship grew into a solid one.
Around June of 2017, he moved in and we now live together. The months of crossing expensive bridges to come and see me have come to an end. Apparently he saw me as an important part of his life to make the effort.

Who would have thought after 22 years of raising children on my own as a single mom with no financial help and no social life that I would be given the gift of love? Things do get rocky from time to time, but somehow we always manage to patch it up and move on with our life. We talk about a future and helping him with his children, and I am excited for what the future holds for us. At the age of 60, I did not think there would be another person who would touch my soul as he has.

This is my love story and in my past I cannot say I truly ever knew what love meant til Joanna met Howard.”

--Joanna Konecny

See all Patch love letters here.

For next month's Love In A Small Town feature, we want to know: What place in town will always be a reminder of love for you? Whether it's the park where you had your first kiss or the restaurant where he proposed, email your story to locallove@patch.com for the chance to be featured. Get more details here.