We met in a chat room in 1998--he in New Zealand and I, nearly 8,000 miles away, in western North America. You can't say love at first sight on the internet, but it was close. I liked "being with" Pat--he was witty, easy-going, and not full of himself as so many internet acquaintances at that time were.

As time went on, Pat showed me how to play games on the internet…such wonderful classics as Starcraft, Broodwars, Diablo and Diablo II. I LOVED these games. Then this hugely anticipated game came out, a type called an MMORPG (I didn't even know what that meant until Pat explained it - Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game). The name of the game was EverQuest. I bought my copy the day it came out. It wasn't going to come out in New Zealand for another month, so I bought an extra copy for Pat and mailed it to him. He was one of the first people in that country to have the game.

From then on, EverQuest was the site of our dating. We couldn't believe the wonders of this virtual world where we could swim together, dine together, take walks in the moonlight, fight together, and yes, even get married in-game together. My character at the time, Ravenlark, a wood elf bard, was suitably proposed to by Pat's then character, Hyaplew D'Valiant, a high elf paladin. We were to be married when I reached level 20 and could take the last name of D'Valiant. It was a lovely ceremony on the bank of the Karanas waterways, near the entrance to South Karana from West Karana. How I loved that spot. Dozens of invited guests showed up, and Hyaplew and Ravenlark, resplendent in their wedding armor, stood before the leader of our guild at the time and exchanged vows of wedlock. We had each written up our own little speeches, and I was touched to the heart with Hyaplew's…it was so sweet and sincere.

It was about that time that Pat and I decided we wanted to meet each other in real life, with a view to finding out if what we were feeling about each other was the real thing. So we both saved like crazy (huge air fare for a round trip ticket from Wellington, New Zealand, to Calgary, Canada). And on July 1, 1999, a year to the day after we met in that chat room, Pat stepped down off the plane onto Canadian soil. (Actually there was a huge mix-up, and I had the wrong flight number and wasn't there to meet him. That is another story in itself. But we finally got it all sorted out.) We ran to meet each other and, because of the mix-up, were just glad to be with each other in person, at long last. We stood in the main concourse in the Calgary International Airport, just hugging and hugging each other. It only took us five minutes to know the love was real. We took a whole week though to make sure, though. And three weeks later, we were married.

That's not the end of the story though. A week after we were married, Pat had to go back to New Zealand to tie up loose ends and await Canada Immigration to get their act together. His returning to New Zealand was worse than never having met and never having married. Now, we knew what we had in each other, and the separation was the most painful thing I have ever experienced in my life. I can't describe the feelings I had when he walked through the lounge to board the plane. I was trying to be brave, but my heart was being wrung inside out.

It was EverQuest that got us through the next five months. It was the only way that we could get to "be together." And we took full advantage of the experiences offered in the game, seizing every opportunity to interact together and enjoy each other's company. It was really a heartwarming experience. Like any other couple, we now had friends who had been with us from close to the start of our romance and had seen us through the waiting periods…first when he originally came to Canada…and then when he had gone back to New Zealand. The final thing that was holding him in NZ was Canada Immigration. They moved slower than a rooted mob in EQ. Finally, he said to hell with it and came to Canada anyhow, landing in Calgary on Jan. 2, 2000 - what a way to start the new millennium! (With the help of our local Member of Parliament, we were able to get the process finalized, and Pat became a Landed Immigrant officially on Feb. 6th, 2000.)

So, although we didn't meet in EverQuest, we formed our fast friendship and became each other's best friend through EverQuest. As Pat maintained, we fell in love from the inside out. We will have been married six years in July, 2005.