After a missed connection, woman places an ad
Published On Thu Mar 10 2011
Nicole Baute Staff Reporter
Linda Patterson has a regret, but she is determined to set it right.
There was a man on her flight from Winnipeg to Toronto on Sunday attractive, not too tall, and smart enough to wait until the last minute to board the plane, like she did. They had watched each other surreptitiously in the airport lounge before boarding the plane, when he settled into a front row aisle seat.
Thats my favourite seat on the plane, Patterson, 39, joked as she passed him. Youre going to have to tell me how you got that seat.
But she didnt give him a chance to. By the time the plane landed in Toronto at 10:30 p.m., the bookkeeper was weary from a day of travel that had begun at 6 a.m. in a small town in British Columbia, a journey to Calgary, and flight to Winnipeg. While finally waiting for her luggage in Pearson, another friend texted her to say that after driving home to Fort Erie she would have to shovel the driveway to get her car in. It had snowed, again.
All of a sudden I felt like somebody had just deflated me, Patterson says.
The stranger had moved cautiously closer. He was standing just 3 metres away, probably trying to say hello. But she didnt have it in her.
I looked at his feet and then looked up to his knees and thought, I dont have the energy for this right now, Patterson says. And then after about a minute he walked away.
I thought, Oh, what have I just done?
The baggage carousel starting moving. The mystery man grabbed his luggage and left.
On the hour-and-a-half drive home, Patterson thought about the moment that had slipped by her. I should have just met his eyes and said hello to see if there was anything there, she says. I didnt. I missed it.
She would try to fix it.
I think when you get to a certain age and probably 40 is it you start being tired of having regrets, says Patterson. She called the airline, WestJet, to see if they could send him an email. They couldnt. So, in an era when many people post missed connections on Craigslist or send shout-outs to strangers on t.o.nights free commuter paper, Patterson decided to take out a simple $600 ad in the Toronto Stars Sports section to run three days: Thursday, Friday and Saturday. She figured most men but also some women, like her are interested in sports. She hoped he would be, too.
The ad describes the brief encounter and includes her phone number. Can I have another chance? it asks.
Patterson, who is separated, has no illusions that this man is The One, or even that there was, necessarily, a romantic spark between them. I just thought I should be a little more inviting, to make a human connection, she says. She doesnt want to be left wondering about what could have been.
When the Star contacted her for this story on Thursday, the camera-shy Patterson didnt want to be photographed. And she had yet to hear from the man from the front row, but she had still received some interesting calls.
At first I thought, Im going to be so sorry that Ive wasted this money, she says. But I cant believe how many people its touched.(http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/952128)
Published On Thu Mar 10 2011
Nicole Baute Staff Reporter
Linda Patterson has a regret, but she is determined to set it right.
There was a man on her flight from Winnipeg to Toronto on Sunday attractive, not too tall, and smart enough to wait until the last minute to board the plane, like she did. They had watched each other surreptitiously in the airport lounge before boarding the plane, when he settled into a front row aisle seat.
Thats my favourite seat on the plane, Patterson, 39, joked as she passed him. Youre going to have to tell me how you got that seat.
But she didnt give him a chance to. By the time the plane landed in Toronto at 10:30 p.m., the bookkeeper was weary from a day of travel that had begun at 6 a.m. in a small town in British Columbia, a journey to Calgary, and flight to Winnipeg. While finally waiting for her luggage in Pearson, another friend texted her to say that after driving home to Fort Erie she would have to shovel the driveway to get her car in. It had snowed, again.
All of a sudden I felt like somebody had just deflated me, Patterson says.
The stranger had moved cautiously closer. He was standing just 3 metres away, probably trying to say hello. But she didnt have it in her.
I looked at his feet and then looked up to his knees and thought, I dont have the energy for this right now, Patterson says. And then after about a minute he walked away.
I thought, Oh, what have I just done?
The baggage carousel starting moving. The mystery man grabbed his luggage and left.
On the hour-and-a-half drive home, Patterson thought about the moment that had slipped by her. I should have just met his eyes and said hello to see if there was anything there, she says. I didnt. I missed it.
She would try to fix it.
I think when you get to a certain age and probably 40 is it you start being tired of having regrets, says Patterson. She called the airline, WestJet, to see if they could send him an email. They couldnt. So, in an era when many people post missed connections on Craigslist or send shout-outs to strangers on t.o.nights free commuter paper, Patterson decided to take out a simple $600 ad in the Toronto Stars Sports section to run three days: Thursday, Friday and Saturday. She figured most men but also some women, like her are interested in sports. She hoped he would be, too.
The ad describes the brief encounter and includes her phone number. Can I have another chance? it asks.
Patterson, who is separated, has no illusions that this man is The One, or even that there was, necessarily, a romantic spark between them. I just thought I should be a little more inviting, to make a human connection, she says. She doesnt want to be left wondering about what could have been.
When the Star contacted her for this story on Thursday, the camera-shy Patterson didnt want to be photographed. And she had yet to hear from the man from the front row, but she had still received some interesting calls.
At first I thought, Im going to be so sorry that Ive wasted this money, she says. But I cant believe how many people its touched.(http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/952128)
