Barbara Ellington, Lifestyle Editor
O'Neil Samuels and Erica Taylor who met in a Digicel chat room have grown in love since April last year. Caught in a loving embrace, they will seal their union on March 11. - RUDOLPH BROWN/CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
MANY RELATIONSHIPS have evolved from heart-warming love letters but as we become more technologically advanced, many are finding true romance through sending text messages.
The increasingly popular method of communication sealed the destinies of mason O'Neil Samuels and nursing student Erica Taylor last year.
O'Neil who lives in Kingston, got used to seeing his cousin send and received text messages on his Digicel phone and asked him how. His cousin revealed that he was a member of a chat room, so O'Neil decided to join for fun. That was April 2005.
"I got hooked up using the name 'Loverboy' and sent the following text message, 'Hi, I'm looking for the girl of my life, anyone interested please text me.'"
He told Lifestyle that in less than five minutes he received Erica's reply. Since no numbers are revealed in the chat room, they sent each other text messages for a month before he told her he wanted to hear her voice.
"The first time I heard her voice it sounded like a whistling bird in garden," said O'Neil who had no girlfriend at the time. That first conversation in June last year, lasted for over half an hour because he kept increasing his credit so he could continue listening to Erica's sweet voice, which he said kept his imagination soaring.
As time passed and with Erica living in Montego Bay, they both began to feel the need to meet so they arranged a date and place in August.
"We decided on the colours we would wear and I hurried to finish work so I could catch the bus down, O'Neil said. In Montego Bay, he got on the phone and started to tell Erica he was on Barnett Street. "I looked up and saw her walking towards me and with the first look felt like a star was shining brightly in me," he said.
The obviously serious O'Neil booked into a guest house for the weekend and proceeded to get to know his new found love in person. He was rewarded further by his first kiss and that sent temperatures soaring even higher.
After he returned to Kingston, Erica who was studying to become a nurse, made the decision to come to Kingston to live.
"I felt so good seeing him in the flesh, I broke off the relationship I was in because this felt like the real thing," she said. O'Neil is honest, caring, loving, compassionate and romantic. He has everything I am looking for in a man and more," she added.
She said although her previous boyfriend was devastated at the break-up, she knew she made the right decision because she could feel the difference.
FUTURE PLANS
Now they live in the same area and they spend a lot of their talking time making plans for the future and reminiscing on the things they used to discuss in the chat room.
His plans include sending her to finish her nursing course, starting his own business and walking down the aisle with his new love on March 11.
He made up his mind that she was the one very quickly. On the trip to Montego Bay last year, he wore a ring which he presented to her down on one knee before leaving.
"I told her to wear it always and see my face and hear me talking to her when she looks at it because it would be replaced by other rings in the future," Mr. Romantic told Lifestyle. He wanted Erica to see just how serious he was.
And true to his word, when Erica moved to Kingston last October, he presented her with a receipt and took her to Mall Jewellers where he had made a down payment on an engagement ring. He had the ring sized and told her, "I love the woman in you who brings out the man in me and I want you to be the woman in my life."
Two weeks ago they became engaged at his church, Power of Faith Ministries, 47a Grove Road.
Erica says she's sure O'Neil is the man for her and would encourage others to visit the Digicel chat room because on their first time they found each other. And he is now out of the chat room for good because he has found his wife but he advises guys, "If you are free, get a Digicel phone and join the chat room."
