Anna Stagliano - A Love Story

I ask myself this every day. how in the world did this happen. I never expected to find love at such a late age. I gave up on the thought of having a partner. I was happy just being me. After all, my four kids are healthy, and I have a great job in the Catskills where I can hike and be outdoors. When you are in your fifties, you allow yourself to think this is all I want. What more did I need. Then, along comes Anna when I least expected it.  Music means a lot to me. One day, I heard a song that reminded me of the weekend we first met. This song is my anthem when I think of meeting Anna. It is "Aint that a kick in the head" by Dean Martin. This is how I feel when I think of or see Anna. The "pop" that starts the song reminds me of the first time I laid eyes on her.  The lyrics remind me of the first time we met in Erie Pennsylvania. Especially, "I hugged her and she hugged me back!" We had spent 6 weeks getting to know each other on the phone. When I set m...

Personality matters. We all have one. For years, I always felt mine was a barrier to relationship success. I needed to find someone that allowed me to be me. I have a big personality and want to share it with the woman I love.  One sure way to find out if someone truly loves you is when they tell you to tone it down a bit. That never worked for me in the past. I don't want to "tone" down my love for someone. In fact, I want to do the opposite. I want to fully embrace and be a little 'Cra Cra" with the woman I love.  Anna is another version of me in some crazy way. Our personalities can be similar and different. We embrace both because the love shared never has to be the same. Let me provide an example of the same and different.  The first thing that comes to my mind regarding the same is our values. We are very alike. We share the same values and a sense of what is needed in a relationship. I love that about us.  We know the non-negotiables that can tear us apart...

Finding a life partner literally means....Finding a partner in life. What that means is you enjoy the amazing times together and you will always have obstacles you have to overcome. For us, it was distance. We live 400 miles apart for the first 9 months only to give birth to a new relationship together. 9 months of living apart takes work. However, you can make the best of it. I lived in the Catskills and she lived in Pittsburgh. We had to do our best to make sure we made the best of our time together and apart. Any long-distance relationship has its fair share of stress. We were not immune to restless nights or obstacles when figuring out how to bring our love to one location. Each person has to sacrifice for the greater good. We also have to support each other in times of doubt which causes stress. That's when two people have to be strong for each other. It requires at times one person to be the cheerleader when the other person is feeling defeated.  This is how you bring two peo...

The most common question Anna would ask me when we first met is, "Are you going to fade out?" Sometimes she would rephrase it such as, "Will you be like this forever..." Basically, as in any relationship, the inner voice in our brain asks, "Is this too good to be true?" I thought the same thing at times looking back. True love is based on effortless love for one another. We both had "fadeouts" in our past. By that, I mean that feeling you get when you hope for the best, and unfortunately, the person is not who they say they are in the beginning. Good intentions are not the foundation for true love. The actions of an individual should be organic and without thoughts or planning. It is the foundation when you wake up in the morning, your first thought is about your true love. You also end your day thinking about your boo.... Sprinkled in between the start and end of your day are kind loving thoughts of the person you fell in love with. Some tell-ta...

Kismet is a fancy way of describing your fate. I realized right away that Anna was my destiny. How, you might ask did I know? Well, I realized that I am a lot for someone to handle long before I met Anna. And I am a bit picky and old-fashioned at times. I started to get comfortable with being single for the rest of my life. Fate and destiny had a different plan for me. When I met Anna, I realized that our love was unique. She loved and embraced who I am as a person. I was not used to that. In fact, I would fade out of past relationships because I felt like people did not understand me. Anna on the other hand did understand me and loved me for who I am. KISMET is something I thought I would never have in a relationship. Along comes the love of my life Anna Stagliano and fate and destiny had a different plan for me. 

Living apart for an extended period takes creative measures to show the other person that you love them. One of my earliest habits that has lasted over 6 months is as follows. When we are apart, I end every night with a song dedicated to Anna. It is a small gesture that has brought about many warm memories. Some nights, I have dedicated songs that Anna recently listened to or thought of at some point. This speaks to KISMET or Intuit someone can lead to amazing experiences even from a distance.  Some of our song titles have ranged from many genres of music. I usually take the day to think of a song that fits my ever-growing love for Anna. The range can be from the 1950s to the present regarding the artists I have chosen for Anna.  Lastly, my favorite artist is Phil Collins/Genesis. I occasionally choose a song from my favorite artist because it is special. It is my way of sharing something that brings me joy. Over the past 40 years, I have loved some of the songs for their dee...

During our first 6 weeks, strange events would unfold that brought us closer together. At first, it was the typical thing that can happen in a relationship. Finishing each other's sentences, finding out we have similar likes, and learning about what we have in common. However, something special would develop that I/We never experienced before. We would soon learn we have intuitive love. The kind of love that goes beyond the day-to-day coincidences or happenings. We had very real events that went beyond the world we currently live in. It all started one night when we were sleeping. I believe it was the second week we were together. I had a dream after we hung up around 2 AM. I would call Anna and for some reason felt like I needed to share with her my dream. Anna would be stunned by the fact that she at the very same time had the same dream as I had. When I say the same dream, we literally shared our love together in our sleep 400 miles apart from each other.  Similar events would g...

Have you ever wanted to meet somebody that you were enamored with on Facebook? Well, that's me. And this is my story about meeting the love of my life. It all started with a slow confidence-building process for myself.  I have admired Anna from afar for many months. Then one day, I reached out out to her with a question. "Hey, if I ever come to Pittsburgh, would you like to get coffee of something...." And she replied..."What took you so long? That response was so amazing, it will always stick with me forever. My confidence would slowly build up and I finally asked her out vis Messenger. We quickly realized it would not be easy being so far apart, however we decided to take a chance. Anna has high standards and wanted us to wait six weeks to get to know each other. I being like a typical male wanted to meet right away. She was correct and the first 6 weeks solidified our love. We would talk every night into the early morning hours daily. We had virtual dates on the w...