Mariel ... my story ended up longer than yours. Yours, though, easily puts mine in the shade ... being the heart~rending tale of an young lady prepared to travel to the other side of the world at HUGE financial and - more importantly - emotional expense to herself, for the sake of a spineless jerk, lacking even in the common decency of acknowledging her presence. And in that sense, each of our stories are similar ... laying aside the vast differences in the respective distances involved.

Such misfortunes are no respecter of persons or gender ... they can - and often do -affect young, old, middle-aged, male or female alike, as we've seen. But we can simply put them down to experience and move on with our lives ... as I did. And within a year, I found myself corresponding regularly with a Filipina to whom I've been happily married since December 2008.

So ... if I can do it in my sixties ... you can in your twenties, Mariel.