Sadly,
something fairly similar happened to
me a little more than five years ago. Having corresponded daily with a 60-year-old Irish woman ... who, like myself, had been widowed, I travelled to Dublin - where we arranged to meet in the lobby of a hotel I'd booked into the evening prior to our "assignation".
Unfortunately, I'm partially deaf - a condition worsened by air travel - particularly following short-haul flights ... in spite of my wearing hearing aids!! And
this occasion, being no exception, I found myself practically stone deaf ... "floating" in almost complete silence through the airport on arrival.
... NOT a good start!
However, by next morning - as luck would have it - my hearing seemed to've improved sufficiently to enable me to be be alerted by 'Room Service' informing me my guest had arrived. So ... downstairs I trotted. Although we hadn't previously met in person, each of us instantly recognised the other from our respective photos on the Dating Site. Having exchanged the usual pleasantries, she then, somewhat apologetically, asked if I could direct her to the 'Ladies'.
... nothing unusual in that,
... needs must ... especially after a lengthy car journey. But when she came back [eventually] she was holding a cigarette packet in her hand and, without a word, indicated she was going outside for a fag.
Strange thing for someone to do on initial acquaintance, I felt ... though, again, fair enough ... she maybe needed something to calm possible underlying feelings of nervousness. So I patiently waited ... and waited ... and ...
... after 20 minutes (more than double the time it takes to smoke a single cigarette!) I stepped outside ... glanced up, down and across both sides of the street. Alas ... she was nowhere to be seen! Thoroughly pissed~off ... I trudged upstairs to "lick my wounds" ... only to be summoned back to Reception some time later, to take a
call from a relative of hers ... explaining (whatever her name was - can't remember now
- best forgotten anyroads! ) had had to be driven back home due to feeling unwell ... or some other
excuse.
Without further ado, I hastily packed, checked out of the hotel and headed straight for the airport ... where I'd hoped to be able to utilise the return portion of my ticket (costing seventy~odd quid) 3 days earlier than scheduled - all to no avail - leaving me stranded on the other side of the Irish Sea until the end of the week ...
unless I was prepared to stump up twice the amount I'd paid in the first place.
... bloody Ryanair!
Needless to say, I wasn't ... and spent the rest of that week sightseeing -
ALONE!
Rarely - if ever - had I been "stood up" in the past. So, once back home, I decided to contact the person responsible for leading me on this particular "wild goose chase" ... seeking a proper explanation for her sudden, unladylike behavior in going "AWOL" as it were. Whereupon she insinuated the photo I'd used on the dating site must've been at least 10 years old ... the cheeky bitch ... when, in fact, it was taken only three years previously - since which time, I assured her, I hadn't changed. Hmph ... with hindsight,
I ought to have retorted that if she'd cared to glance at herself in the mirror during her long sojourn to the hotel toilet earlier that week - instead of (as I suspect) using her mobile to call her driver in order to "beat a hasty retreat" - it would've been patently obvious
she was no spring chicken!
But -
ever the gentleman 
- I didn't.
Originally Posted by Arthur Little
Mariel ... my story ended up longer than yours. Yours, though, easily puts mine in the shade ... being the heart~rending tale of anyoung 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.
breath on this heartless b.....d 
... don't be tempted to contact him.
lol :P
