This was published in Victoria Times Colonist, February 14, 2013
Published in the Victoria Times Colonist, Sunday February 17, 2013
Jane’s father, Carl McGibbon has passed away. Jane, her sister Ann, and her brother Jeff were at his side.
Jane held a special bond with her dad, as daughters do, and he is now reunited with Jane’s mother Marjorie, who passed 25 years ago.
We are sorry for Jane’s loss and extend to her our deepest sympathy during this difficult time.
Jill, Alexandra, and Rhonda
Being single doesn’t mean that you need to find Valentine’s Day a depressing occasion. You can still treat yourself and feel good about your single life. Here is a range of ideas for doing things to participate “in the spirit” while keeping up your spirit; or, you can simply treat it like any other day!
1. Indulge in yourself. Since Valentine’s Day is all about love, spending the day loving yourself makes perfect sense. Play hooky from work (or just leave an hour early) and do whatever you want, be it pampering yourself with a massage or staying home, ordering take out and marathoning every movie your celeb crush has ever been in. After all, you have no one to please but your own darn self.
2. Go after what you want. If indulging seems a little too…indulgent, go the opposite direction and use the day to finish (or start) something you’ve been meaning to tackle. Secure that promotion you’ve been after at work; go spend some money on yourself doing something you’ve always wanted to do.
3. Find something new to love. Interested in taking up yoga? Want to learn how to be a sommelier? Wish you could cook risotto? Challenge yourself to do something you haven’t done before, or seldom get to do because of your schedule.
4. Send love someone else’s way. Studies show that kindness spreads, so start an epidemic. Give Valentine’s Day cards to those close to you, like your co-workers and friends, as well as those not so close to you, like the barista who serves you your coffee. Not the Hallmark type? Volunteer locally and help those less fortunate than you. Seeing a face light up from your small gesture will fill you with love and make the world a better place. (I’m serious)
5. Use Valentine’s Day as an “actively seek a partner day”. Many places put on singles evenings so get your girlfriends or male friends together and head for a singles party. Who knows who you might meet?
They had never given up hope, although there were days…Jim and Catherine were both 62 in 2009, their birthdays only five days apart. They were both single and living on Vancouver Island, only two hours apart, and even though they were meant for each other they had never met. Catherine was an office administrator in Victoria and Jim worked up-Island. He’d been on his own for three years, she’d been on her own for a year after a relationship turned sour.
“There were a lot of guys playing the field in Victoria because of the number of women available,” Catherine says, “and I’d had some bad experiences.”
Both had pretty well given up looking for a soul mate, but a friend of Catherine’s kept encouraging her to talk to Jane Carstens at Matchmaker for Hire. As for Jim, he was flying back to the Island from Edmonton when he read an article on the plane about finding a soul mate. He decided to make the phone call to Matchmaker for Hire as soon as he got home.
Jane worked her magic for them and set up their first date. They talked for hours, and actually found they had a lot in common. “He’s a really nice guy,” Catherine told Jane afterwards, “but there isn’t any chemistry there.” Jane pointed out an important fact — the guys Catherine did have immediate chemistry with turned out to be not so good for her — and she urged Catherine to try again. “Jane provided the coaching and the encouragement I needed,” she said. “Jim had already sent a follow-up email to me, wanting to stay in touch, so at Jane’s urging I told him I would go out with him again the next time he was in Victoria.”
“Over the course of the next few months,” Catherine recalls, “he arrived with a huge box of chocolates and a nice Christmas card. Things continued to progress slowly, although I still wasn’t sure.” Jim turned out to be a really great guy— an old fashioned gentleman. He started coming down to Victoria for weekends, she went up-Island to see him.
Fast forward to Halloween 2010, and the event that’s now part of their family folklore. “I always spend Halloween with my family, handing out treats,” Catherine told us. She didn’t know that Jim had called her son earlier in the day to orchestrate a little surprise of their own. At one point, her son insisted that it would be her turn to answer the door when the next ‘trick or treater’ arrived.
The next trick or treater was a very large kid in an ill- fitting Darth Vader costume. “I reached for a treat,” Catherine says, “and then I saw his shoes. They looked awfully familiar. It was Jim of course, and as we laughed together he got down on his knees and proposed to me. He had a ring, and I guess I got the treat!”
Jim and Catherine were married in Mexico in December 2011. They got all the kids and grandkids onto a plane and stayed at a beach resort. Both are now retired and just turned 65 together in Saanich.
Both credit Matchmakers for proving that hope indeed springs eternal. “If it hadn’t been for Jane’s coaching,” Catherine says, “I probably wouldn’t have seen Jim again. It was like sitting down with a girlfriend and talking things out. She was right — you’re not always going to click with someone on a first date.”
Jim adds: “We both sold our properties after the wedding and we were driving around with a realtor one day, looking at new houses, and she asked how we met. I told her that we’d used the services of a matchmaker. She asked: “Why did you do that?”
“I looked over at her and said: Well now, why did we hire a realtor to find a house?”
Jane , Jill , and Alex
May the warmth of Christmas grant you LOVE!
Alexandra, Jill and Jane sporting our MOvember look!!!!!!!
Fun time was had by all at the annual BIV Golf Tournament, hole 16, Men’s closest to the pin contest.
It’s funny how everyone fusses over the 1st of January as the start of a new year, when the fact of the matter is — many of us have a gut feeling that September 1st is the true beginning of a new start.
A fresh approach to our jobs after summer vacation (and Labour Day!)…a new school year underway…even our agrarian ancestors would bring in the harvest and plan for the future in September. Hey, if you lived in Australia, September 1st would be first day of spring!
You get the point. Deep in your heart you know that this is the time to make a change in your life by letting someone special enter it. September’s birthstone is the sapphire, by the way, and its meaning is ‘clear thinking’.
Do you need any more convincing that it’s time to get in touch with us and get going? Consider this — September is the ninth month on the calendar. And we all know that after nine months, nice things arrive.
Listen to that September feeling in your heart. Contact Matchmaker for Hire and turn the page on a ‘new year’.