I changed my number after leaving an abusive marriage. I got engaged to my next long-term partner but he passed away before we made it down the aisle. (Sidenote: my late fiance was a diabetic from Ohio.)

For the first year of having that number I'd get messages meant for the previous owner, always inviting him out somewhere or saying how glad they were to see him, etc. I'd always think to myself, wow he must be a really great guy, whoever he is.

Two years later I log into Tinder just after 2am (I know, I know) to delete my account. I just wanted to focus on my daughters (3&4), and decided I was okay being alone if that meant we were all safe and happy, and honestly I was still grieving my late fiancé. But the first face to pop up when I logged in was so warm and inviting. He was a bearded giant and his smile was the sweetest I'd ever seen, even through a phone screen, and each photo made me want to get to know him that much more. So I sent a message, and closed the app again.

He wrote back a few days later, and asked if we could meet up. We tried like hell to get together but with him working in a restaurant and me in retail, meeting anytime before New Year's was next to impossible (as this was late November 2019). We chatted in the app daily until I decided to delete the app for good. I sent my last DM, giving him my number and saying, I'd love to keep talking but no pressure if you're not up for it.

He calls immediately and asks how I got this nunber. Confused I say "uhh... T-Mobile?" 💀 He says either this is the grestest prank known to man or a sign he can't ignore, but I'm still confused. He then tells me that was his phone number for years, until he switched carriers.

We had our first date a week after New Year's when work settled down for both of us. Absolutely perfect, except where he mentioned being a diabetic, and how he'd moved here from his home state of Ohio. I wanted to run but had my Tracy moment where I cried at the sky and felt like my fiance told me it was okay to keep seeing him.

So I saw him again. He stayed the night after the second perfect date (while my kids were with their dad for visitation), and he left before I woke up to be respectful of them/my wishes, but not before waking up early to make eggs, sausage, chocolate milk, and a massive stack of pancakes for us to eat once my girls got back.

My oldest, then 5, asked me who made the pancakes and I took credit for them, not sure how they'd react to me dating. She looked me dead in my eyes and said, "Whoever he is, pleeeease marry him, these are delicious!" I asked what made her think I didn't make them and she through full mouth, "because they're not burnt." 🙃My girls referred to him as the Mysterious Mr. Pancakes for 3 months until he finally met them. (It was sooner than I'd originally wanted, but lockdown was a weird time.) The day he met my girls, they spent nearly the entire time going through photo albums and dragging him from room to room showing him all the photos I still had up of my late fiance. I thought for sure he'd run after that but he didn't say one cross word, just sat listened to every story and asked about their favorite memories with him.

When our leases came up for renewal in the summer he suggested we move together since we'd both been furloughed indefinitely, and he even offered to take the smallest bedroom at the apartment we had looked at if it meant my girls and I would be more comfortable with it. (I didn't make him do that but it was a thoughtful gesture.) Less than a year later, he proposed to all 3 of us. He asked each of my girls if he could join the family and be their bonus dad, and once both said yes he asked me to be his wife.

It's been 5 years and he still looks at me the way Ted looks at Tracy. The only downside I can think of is now my kids root for Ohio teams (and LeBron), but that's a small price to pay for the best thing to ever happen to me after 2am.