Mary Barna, a 55-year-old area manager from Clevedon, Somerset, took things very slowly with her online romance.

I’d sworn off men, following my divorce in 1996 and a subsequent disastrous relationship at the end of which my partner of six years left me for another woman. Then a friend suggested internet dating, so in 2003 I reluctantly decided to give it a go. 

I enrolled with DatingDirect.com, as it has lots of men in their 40s and 50s. I didn’t want romance, just someone who could accompany me to the many dinners I used 
to attend in my days as a town councillor. I didn’t give much thought to the photo I put on my profile, and of the three men who got in touch, one said I should try smiling more! Another thought we were dating after only a handful of e-mails – people sometimes have odd expectations.

Then one evening, a message popped on screen announcing new members in my 
area, including Bill, a divorced software engineer. He was a couple of years younger than me, and I thought he had a kind face, so I sent  him a message asking if he fancied a cup of tea – I had no interest in endless cyber communication. I wasn’t usually so direct, but you have to be prepared for a certain amount of rejection online. Luckily, Bill wanted to meet, and our first date, going for a walk, was a success. He wasn’t as tall as I’d expected, and we were both pretty guarded, but I knew I wanted to meet again.

Bill told me he had almost given up on internet dating, because he was sick of inane divorcées whose idea of chat was asking what his favourite colour was. I played hard 
to get at first, not texting him much and only meeting during the day. Bill enjoyed the thrill of the chase – and it made a change from the nude photos he’d been sent by some of the women on the site. 

We put each other through a series of vetting processes, making sure our friends approved and, more importantly, that our children did. I met Bill’s children, Matthew 
and Shelley, then 16 and  23, within a couple of months, but was nervous about Bill 
meeting my twins Eilidh and Kirstyn, who were 12, and my sons, Alistair, 21, and Colin, 18. The girls were won over by his sports car and willingness to play rounders with them, and my sons, although initially protective of me, came to accept him.

Although both of us had said we never wanted to remarry, when he moved in with 
us in February 2005, I changed my mind. We were married that June, and my friends all remarked that Bill looked head over heels in love. I never expected to meet someone in such an engineered way, but despite the modern technology behind it, we still enjoyed an old-fashioned romance.