A lot of people think that Daniel and I met on the internet. Sometimes it's easier to just say that and be done with it because in actual fact, we met at Julie's funeral. Not really the kind of place you expect to meet the love of your life, huh?

Daniel was a really close friend of Julie's. When Julie went across to Melbourne for her transplant, she got a little lap-top to take with her. It was the beginning of Julie and Daniel's friendship. They met in a chat room and struck up a friendship. At first it was just a computer friendship, but eventually it spilled over into real life and Daniel was one of the people Julie looked forward to meeting when she went on her holiday over to Sydney to meet her internet friends.

After their meeting, Julie and Daniel got even closer. When Julie started to get sick and spent most of her time in hospital, Daniel would call her up and chat to her for hours. I know she was really grateful for the company and genuinely enjoyed getting to know him. I think their longest phone conversation was nearly ten hours! Daniel and I got close to breaking it one day ourselves, but I wanted him to keep his record with Julie.

I spoke to Daniel once in a while when Julie got too sick to speak to him herself. Sometims she would be too tired and other times, she just didn't have the breath to talk. I can't say I got to know Daniel too well then, but it let me know that he was a good guy and he cared about my sister. I should have known then that any girl that was lucky enough to land him would be a very happy girl indeed.

Daniel happened to be over in Perth on a holday when Julie passed away. He was due to fly home before her funeral, but paid the extra money to change his flight and stayed to pay his respects to his dearly beloved friend. I spent a very short amount of time with him then and he said that he would keep in touch. I didn't really believe him, but he stayed true to his word and would call just to see how I was doing.

Daniel and I formed our own friendship that turned into mutual feelings of something more. We started a long distance relationship and got to know each other inside and out. I flew over to see him in NSW and we knew that we wanted to be together. In January of 2002, I packed up and moved across Australia to be with the man of my dreams. We have been together ever since and are just as in love (if not more now than when we first fell in love) today as the day we first realised we were in love.

Daniel is the centre of my universe. His big, kind heart showed me love I have never known before. Because of him, I am a better person, and that's the honest to goodness truth. He lets me be who I am and he loves me regardless. I never really believed that once you found your "one" you would know, but being with Daniel has proved me wrong. I feel it in my bones that he is my soul mate and we will be together forever. We have been through so much, shared so many things and come so far together.

I look forward to sharing my life with him for the rest of my days.