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ICQ
They met on ICQ. Yes, another online relationship! Ted did a search based on interests and was looking for someone in Montana that would be interested in going hiking and going on photography trips with him. Out of four hundred names he picked Tanya's.
They talked online for about three weeks. On May 22, a Saturday night, they talked on the computer for seven hours. They discovered that they worked about 1/4 mile apart, and lived right over the hill from each other.
Tanya's son was flying back to West Virginia to see his dad for the summer and she wanted some good pictures of her and Duane before he left. That night she asked Ted if he would meet her at the park the next day and take the pictures for her. Finally, they were going to meet in person.
He drove past her 3 times, and after the third time she gathered up the kids (Duane's friend, Meghann, was with them) and went to a pay phone. She left a message for him to meet her in the parking lot of her office building. He pulled into the parking lot and got out of his truck and she fell head over heals then and there. He took one look at her and thought "Wow."
As they talked and came to know each other better, they realized that everything they thought they knew about love and relationships had went out the window.
Duane thought the world of Ted. He never got attached to anyone so quickly. He left for the summer to go back east to see his dad. Whenever he would call and talk to his mom, he would be on the phone for about 5 minutes, then want to talk to Ted. It was a conspiracy!
Tanya, though, was thrilled that Duane thought so highly of Ted. One of the requirements of being a single mom - you have to find a man that will love and want your child as much as he loves you. She found that man in Ted. Duane couldn't wait to get home to Montana so he could go racing with Ted. He was the one that kept asking about "marrying my mom."
They were on their way to a moto-cross race in Missoula when Duane turned and looked in Ted's direction. "Ted, when are you going to marry my mom so I can call you 'Dad'?"
Ted almost choked on his Mountain Dew and looks at Tanya. "I had nothing to do with this!", she said.
Ted looked back at Duane and told him that they were waiting to make sure it was okay with him first.
"Yes! It's ok with me! Can you get married at the race?" Ahh, the excitement and impatience of a child!
Ted told him no, that he had to get his mom a ring and ask her first.
"Well, you can ask her now. She will say 'yes' - I know it." Tanya told Duane to calm down, that Ted would ask her when he was ready.
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