How We Met. My name is Tracy and this is how I met my soul mate. In 2005 I was working as a 25 year old freelance flight attendant out of Charlotte, NC. One morning, a captain whom I’ve worked with woke me up with a phone call. “Can you be in Jacksonville, Florida, in four hours?” he frantically asked. “Wow. Sure. What’s going on?” I replied. “One of our two flight attendants called me as she was in her car, driving to our airplane; she’s too sick to make it, and you’re the closest flight attendant I know,” he told me. “Our booking agent will contact you shortly to help you get a flight down here on a commercial airline.” I jumped in the shower and got ready as I played phone tag with the booking agent. And even after that, it wasn’t really the booking agent; it was his son who was still learning his father’s business. He didn’t know a lot about how to buy a ticket for an airline when you need it in a few hours! Thankfully, my suitcase had already been packed for the most part. I had instructed the booking agent’s son how to buy a ticket for me, but the problem was that the flight would probably make me very late for the planned take-off time of the private airplane I was going to work on. It had already been decided that if I was late, they would take off without me. They wouldn’t get as great service with only one flight attendant, but I’d still get paid. From what I was told, everyone was of the opinion that the plane I was scheduled to work on would probably take off without me. Amazingly, when I arrived in Jacksonville, the plane was still there. There were no passengers on board yet. Not only was I replacing a suddenly-sick flight attendant who, from what I’ve heard, has never been sick a day in her life, but the commercial airline flight was set at a good time that day and I made it even though the private plane was supposed to have left already. While I acquainted myself with other flight attendant, the safety manuals and emergency exits, one of the passengers came on board. As soon as our eyes met, there were sparks. You see, 44 year old Dan wasn’t supposed to be on the airplane either that day. His job always requires him to travel ahead of his teammates in order to fulfill his duties. As he told me, never in several years had he flown with his teammates; but that day just happened to be a freak circumstance and his boss had him fly on that airplane. And normally, I wouldn’t have been attracted to a 44 year old guy, just as Dan wouldn’t regularly be attracted to a 25 year old woman. But there was some kind of magic. He was so cute as he tried to make conversation with me. One of the first things he said to me was something that, he told me, came out wrong in a strange way. He said it’s as though he lost control of what he meant to say. “You remind me of my next wife!” he chuckled. Later, he said the joke was supposed to go: “You remind me of one of my wives!” To which I was supposed to reply, “Which one?” and the punchline was “The next one!” Strangely enough, I heard a small voice in my head respond to his flubbed joke. It said: “And you will be.” I didn’t know if that voice was my imagination or a real voice, until I got to know him better. Another result of the original flight attendant not showing up was that the food order got messed up. As a result, I happily resigned myself to the position of dish-washer in the galley. From where I stood, I had a perfect view of Dan; I felt myself drawn to him, watching him, looking at him. He started looking back at me. There were times when we both blushed, but I think I did it more than he (to my girlish chagrin). I think we were attached completely when he put his hand to his chest and made a beating/fluttering motion to show me how much he was affected as well; I must have blushed until I was crimson. He had even done this in front of his co-workers, and I know Dan to be a private person. Before he left the airplane, he gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek; it was the most wonderful kiss I’ve felt. He handed me a note, asked for my phone number in return, and told me that he wanted to talk to me more. The note said, “Tracy- I like what I see in your eyes when you smile.” I was very happy. The strange things did not stop there. He gave me his boss’s card and had written his number on the back, but for some reason I could swear I looked at the back and saw nothing. I assumed that maybe he went by one name but his professional name is different (I’m in a similar situation, being called by my middle name while my first name is on all my documents). I called once and sent one text to his boss’s phone, calling him Dan. Meanwhile, Dan tried to call my phone number but misdialed by one number. Another girl named Tracy answered the phone. She had also met someone named Dan and thought that this Dan was the same one. Her southern accent threw him off a little; he was wondering why he didn’t hear me speak that way on the plane. After a few days, I didn’t hear from Dan and forlornly thought that he must have lost interest; usually not getting a call back from someone I just met never bugged me, but I was feeling as though I was missing something important to my life. Finally, I looked at Dan’s card again and saw the number on the back. I called and left a message. Dan called me back later and I explained my mistake with the numbers. His response was something along the lines of, “What do you mean? I just talked to you a few days ago. You even told me you were getting back on the East Coast.” (Ironically, this Tracy was also traveling from West to East!) For a while, I thought that in a tired state I had answered his call and mistook him to be someone else. But then the other Tracy called him and he realized she was a different person. They figured out where the mix-up had occurred; we all had a good laugh about that. Dan and I talked over the phone for three months, learning that our values and beliefs were nearly identical. Not only that, but we had very similar mothers and past histories (despite the age difference). But in the areas where it counts, we have our differences to help balance each other out. I finally drove out to California to live with my sister and visit him; he kept teasing me into thinking that he was buying me a promise ring, but it turned out to be an engagement ring! He proposed at our favorite restaurant; I looked down while talking and saw it on his finger. It rendered me speechless. I surprised him with his engagement ring (from me to him) at the other restaurant that we enjoyed. It suits his personality, which is just what I wanted. I eventually moved in with him. We weren’t sure what to do about our future together, but one evening I began talking about my friends back East and it dawned on him that I was homesick. I hadn’t even really realized this myself, but we talked about it and I began to realize that I really did miss a lot of what I had left behind. This is also strange because I have lived in several different places and had no problem in any of them regarding homesickness. So we packed up my car and headed east! We like it here, and my friends love him and are so happy to have him in our group. I know he’s equally happy, which makes me even happier. My dad has a large house that has been abandoned and neglected for many years; he has asked us to turn it into a Bed & Breakfast/ Events Hosting place now that we’re living in this area. Dan and I look forward to turning it into a place of peace and relaxation for others. Dan’s even learned how to drive the tractor! We have two cats and call them our fuzzy children. I’m going to see him next week, while he’s on a business trip; we think we are going to have an impromptu marriage ceremony on the beach in Hawaii. After that… who knows? The future is broad for us!