This letter was written to the folks at the radio station, WQYK 99.5, in the Tampabay area.
Hi Kevin, Skip, Rita and Braden
I had a great time playing Battle of the Sexes with you guys. I won 3 days in a row but lost with a little help from my cloaked opponent friend/friends on Friday, Sept. 21, 2001. I had a blast!
I've got a story that I'd like to share with you which I think is pretty awesome. I hope you don't think it's to mushy:
When I was in High School I met my childhood sweetheart, Arlene Larsson in Hollywood, Florida. Arlene and I were engaged to marry 23 years ago when I got out of Bootcamp. After my graduation from my "A" school at SSC-NTC in San Diego on April 7, 1978 I came home on leave. While I was home for two weeks, Arlene became pregnant by me. I didn't know about it for sure until two months later when Arlene had a change of heart and decided to further her education instead of settling down and getting married with family. I lost her for what I thought was for ever. After my discharge from the Navy I worked for her father who owned a construction business. Arlene's father and mother divorced while I was in the Navy. I thought at least by getting my foot in the door with him I'd be able to hear from her or even have a chance to see her again. That wasn't the case. It was a very nasty divorce so there was no contact between Arlene and her adopted father. Arlene had moved to Gainesville to live near her mother while he stayed in Hollywood, FL running his business. I never saw her again. For 23 years I'd lived with a broken heart by her breaking our relationship off. I dreamed of her almost daily, always wondering where she was and how she was doing.
I've had two marriages that weren't the marriages I'd always hoped for. My relationship with my 2nd wife was for 19 years but I never felt the love, passion and romance that I felt with Arlene all those years ago. I always wanted to be a father and with my wife we found out later was impossible.
I had registered for Classmates.com over 2 years ago (1998). I frequently checked to see if Arlene would ever register. After two years or so I'd almost given up but on Memorial Day weekend of this year, I went online and saw that she had just recently registered. I was excited and in shock. I didn't know how I should approach her by making contact. I was so afraid! I wrote a small note saying basically "Hi, I've been wondering how your doing and I've thought about you a lot over the years". She wrote me back and I was shaking reading her letter.
She told me that she been through two terrible marriages and she'd lost her 2nd husband a little over two years ago to brain cancer. They had a daughter, Rachel, who had just turned 11 this past June. Arlene told me that she'd always LOVED me and had never stopped. Immediately after Rachel was born Arlene had her Tubes tied because she didn't want to have any more children with the man she was married too.
The email writing back and forth seemed like a good way to start to get to know each other again but Arlene broke the ice and called me at work early in the morning. It caught me totally off guard. I hadn't heard her voice in 23 years. I felt like a babbling idiot and was shaking like crazy. I wasn't prepared to speak with her yet. I was still getting over the shock that she'd always loved me so the emails were sufficient at the time. We met within a month of our first email letters that we exchanged. She drove down to meet me in Bradenton from Gainesville where she'd been living for all those years near her mother. It was LOVE all over again!!
She left her job of 18 years at North Florida Regional Medical Center in Gainesville as an RN to be with me. I'm so happy to be with my soul-mate once again! It took 23 years but I'm just thankful to GOD for giving me this wonderful gift!
On September 23, 2001 we drove to North Carolina. My fiancée, Arlene Dunaway was scheduled for a Laparotomy (Tubal Reversal) surgery at the Chapel Hill Fertility Clinic in North Carolina. We had made the appointment 6 weeks in advance because the surgeon (Dr. Gary Berger) is in such high demand. He has a 98% success rate so that's why we chose him.
I'm sorry I missed the show this week but we were pretty excited about this life changing event. I told the girl who took my information at the end of the contest last Friday that I was going to be gone for the week so I gave her my cell phone number so I could continue to play. I missed you guys all week!
Well we got back this evening (Friday, September 28, 2001) and Arlene is extremely sore after the surgery. We can start trying again in a couple of weeks if everything goes okay. We're so happy to have this opportunity and especially psyched.
Thanks again for the game!
Matthew S. Lindsay and Arlene Dunaway
Links to other sites on the Web
Matthew Lindsay's Home Page
Lindsay Surname Connection
Descendants of John William Mercer I
DESOTO COUNTY, FLORIDA - EARLY MARRIAGES
JOSHUA CREEK CEMETERY-DeSOTO COUNTY FLORIDA
Mercer Tragedies
