Dawn and Meirion

Dawn and Meirion both joined Friends First in 2011. Little did Dawn know that when she met Meirion it would be Christian love at first sight.

We had both seen an advert for Friends First in different magazines and decided to take the plunge and join.

I had been a member for a number of months by November 2011 and was getting very disheartened as I did not appear to be having any profiles which matched what I wanted in a male friend, so much so that I contacted Friends First and asked for a refund for the remainder of the membership period. Katharine Gray telephoned me and spoke to me about being proactive with my membership and encouraged me to see it through. It so happened that in December 2011, I received a batch of profiles which included Meirion, as he was fairly local, living in Llandovery I decided to write to him and introduce myself.

Meirion will say that on returning from holiday in January 2012, there was a lovely letter waiting for him – from me. It so happened that in my letter I had included my mobile number. One Saturday afternoon whilst shopping with my mum I received a text message from Meirion asking to meet me. I was nicely surprised to say the least but unfortunately due to family illness on both sides, we did not actually meet until May.

On Tuesday 29th May 2012, we finally met at the Nant Ddu Lodge, near Brecon and had a wonderful evening chatting and getting to know each other. I suppose looking back it was Christian love at first sight, we hit it off straight away and have never looked back. We have both been in marriages where we were deeply hurt and never thought we would find true happiness but God is good and he has not let us down. We attend each others churches, we laugh together and realise the importance of setting time aside from our busy working lives to spend quality time together.

On Wednesday 29th May this year, we again went to the Nant Ddu Lodge to celebrate being together for a year and Meirion proposed. The wonderful news is that we have set a date for our wedding which will be taking place in Cardiff City Hall on Saturday 19th April 2014 followed by a Church Blessing in Brecon on Sunday 27th April 2014. Most importantly our families are pleased that we have found happiness again and this time my son will be walking me down the aisle.

We would like to say a big thank you to Friends First, in particular, Katharine who was very encouraging to myself when I was ready to give up. Katharine said to me, “You only need one” Well I found him and we both feel truly blessed. I just never imagined it would be Christian love at first sight but that really is what happened. We serve an amazing God and he proves over and over that he is in control of our lives and everything happens when the time is right. God has our lives mapped out but organisations like yours help us to meet up.

Many thanks and may God continue to bless the work that you do. We would like to encourage other people who find themselves in the same position as us to keep on writing and contacting other members – you will find the right person and for us, it was when we were least expecting it. Hopefully you will experience Christian love at first sight like us but just remember, it may not feel like it at the time!