What a roller coaster. The constants in my life have been friends, sweet kitty Bob, family, and the incomparable boyfriend, John.

He is the newest addition to my life. We met in Fall of 2019 through an NF singles group on Facebook. A friendship began... add then a global pandemic and the courtship of little girl fairytales followed. Still only trading text messages and email, we had yet to meet. On Thanksgiving he sent a box of used books he thought I’d like. Perfect for the bibliophile. But I still wasn’t sure if we were ever going to date or what this THEN when he learned of of my Writing Studio, he sent framed photographs from his years of being a street photographer to decorate the space. Abbey started calling him my “Not so Secret Boyfriend.” Eventually, did

become my boyfriend, and during this ordeal he has been nothing short of wonderful.

The best surprise of all came a couple of weeks ago when this man braved rush hour traffic coming out of Boston to come to CT for a weekend visit. He even doubled down on thoughtfulness and programmed a text to be sent when he was within a particular radius of the house. Sadly, rural Connecticut being what it is, I received the text after he walked through the door, wearing his Cheshire Cat grin.

He’s not one to brag, but I find it very endearing he’s still bragging about how he was able to surprise me.