A paragraph out of a romance novel? No. Rather, it's the real love story of Efrem Jasso and Jennifer Smith.
It started in October 1998, when Efrem Jasso of Dearborn, now 34, was sitting around the house with his buddies, talking about life in general and women in particular.
"My buddy Chris asked me about my last couple of dates. I told him, 'They didn't work - no chemistry.' "
Jasso's friend encouraged him to hang in there with the standard, "You'll find somebody." Jasso replied, "No, I'm setting up a Web site." That's how the idea for ineedawife.com was born.
Looking at his beautiful wife, the articulate Jasso beams with pride and tells how it happened. "I registered the domain name and then didn't do anything with it," Jasso says. "When I got the bill for the Web site, I started laughing and decided that for the money I might as well set up the site."
As a computer technician, Jasso was able to construct the site himself.
"I just told my story. I put in a bio and a baby picture and a current picture and used a lot of humor," he said. "I didn't take this seriously," he laughed, "I didn't think I would find a wife, but I did want to meet somebody."
Looking for a wife
The site was launched Jan. 1, 1999. Jasso registered with a few Internet search engines to get the word out. Nothing happened for the first three weeks. "On Jan. 27th, I came home from work and there were more than 3,000 e-mails," Jasso says.
He began scrolling through the messages and found one referring to a mention in USA Today. He raced out to buy the newspaper, tore it apart and found nothing. Then it dawned on him that it was probably on the newspaper's Web site. "There it was on the Web, the 'USA Today Hot Site of the Week,' " Jasso says. As a result, at least 40,000 responses from around the world poured in during the next four months.
"The Associated Press called me for an interview, Fox 2 News interviewed me. I did 11 or 12 radio interviews for stations across the county," Jasso says, shaking his head. "Everybody wanted to know why I did it, and I laughed. I never meant this to be serious."
"I had men making offers, women making offers. Mothers making offers for their daughters. A few made negative remarks, but overall people were overwhelmingly supportive," Jasso says.
Jasso was perhaps the most cynical about the site. He also received e-mails from all over the world from men and women who wanted to know if his system worked and would he add their pictures to the site.
"That became too much for me," he said. "I just sat there and couldn't think any more."
In late May that year, chatting with various people, a message came in that he found intriguing. Jennifer Smith, now 35, was a single woman living in Madison, Wis. She had seen his Web site.
"I was looking for a date in the personal ads for a friend of mine when I saw Efrem's site," Smith says. "I did the search and wondered what kind of a loser puts up a site like that," she says, laughing.
It was well written, with no spelling or grammatical errors, and Smith, now an editor at the Gale Group in Farmington Hills, was impressed. But she was disillusioned with dating, and not looking for a husband.
"I wasn't thinking about the wife thing, I was more interested in his career," Smith says. At that time she had just started in the computer technology field and wanted to know his experience, his salary and what his life was like as a tech. She fired a lot of straightforward questions at the weary bachelor.
After they chatted a few times, things began to warm up. She sent him a picture of herself bundled in her winter clothes with just her face showing.
"We were spending four to five hours a day chatting about everything. I think it's romantic, like the way people used to write letters back and forth in the old days," Jasso says.
Eventually, they exchanged phone numbers.
"Before we met face to face, we had communicated so much. More than somebody you date or meet someplace. We didn't have the distractions of a date. We had a year of dialogue compressed into two months," he says with a grin.
Leap of faith
In mid-July Jasso planned a trip to Madison. Meanwhile Smith was busy making sure he was for real.
"I checked him out in the public records. My brother is a lawyer, and used his resources. My mother checked the criminal records. I also had a private investigator check on him," Smith says.
She even sent him a postcard to verify his address. Jasso also exercised precaution and told all of his friends where he would be, the time frame, phone numbers and when he should return. They met at the airport.
"She was peeking around a post at me. She offered me her hand to shake and I hugged her instead," Jasso says.
Seeing the tall, slender, wide-eye woman for the first time, Jasso was smitten.
"She was a cutie," he said.
"I was surprised but not displeased when he hugged me," she says. "And then I felt like a dork for sticking my hand out in the first place."
To her surprise, the adorable Jasso was exactly as he had claimed: jovial and warm. "No disappointments," Smith says.
The visit went well. Two days after Christmas 1999, and with her parents' encouragement, Smith moved to Michigan. Jasso updated his Web site and announced that he had met someone. The publicity started all over again, with the interviews in the newspapers, television and radio.
The following April, the couple decided to take a trip to England to meet more of Smith's family. In the hills of the tiny village where her grandmother lives, there is an area known at the Knot.
"It's my favorite place in the world," Smith says.
"I knew I had to ask her to marry me there in her favorite place," Jasso says.
He proposed, and Smith burst into tears.
"I had set up a video camera to record the moment, because I asked her to tie the knot at the Knot," he groaned.
Before returning to the states, they went to the Tower of London.
"I saw gift rings and bought one for each of us as an engagement ring," Jasso says.
Both proudly wore their rings until the wedding.
"How symbolic to be bound together in the Tower of London," Smith says facetiously.
They were married at the Henry Ford Estate and just celebrated their first anniversary.
"He is the best thing that ever happened to me in my adult life," Smith says.
Since the wedding, the couple have been busy with the remodeling of their older home, which could easily become a full-time project.
With their obvious affection and contentment, would they recommend cyberdating to anyone else?
"Yes, I would recommend it if people are safe," Smith says.
"And smart. Use common sense," Jasso adds.
And what does the future hold?
"I'm selling the domain name," Jasso says, grinning.
abwhite
