It only took 28 years…
In 1981 I was a 19 year old Front Desk Clerk at the St. Moritz Hotel on Central Park South in Manhattan.
One night the most gorgeous man I had ever seen walked up to the desk and asked me to go out to dinner with him. He was a Swedish Tour Guide named Mats. We went out to restaurants and clubs and laughed and danced and fell in love.
One night while we were having dinner at Un Deux Trois, Mats proclaimed that we would be married within a year. We were both radiantly happy and completely in love.
Then Mats decided that he wanted to finish his studies in Stockholm and that he wasn’t sure if we should get married. He went back to Sweden and left me heartbroken.
I was an undergraduate at Hunter College with a Double Major in Chinese and Latin and poured myself into my studies to recover.
THEN, In 1984 Mats called me at my apartment on the Upper West Side and said, “Louise, it’s me, Mats. Please come to Sweden, I have finished my studies and am ready for us to get married now.”
I hopped on the next flight to Stockholm. Mats and I bought our wedding bands and then traveled all over Europe. We laughed and danced all over France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Denmark, and Sweden.
THEN, when we were supposed to get married, Mats decided that he wasn’t ready.
I went home, heartbroken again.
When I got back to New York I mailed my ring back to him in Sweden. That was THAT!
THEN, in 1986 I went to live in Taipei, Taiwan for a year to complete my studies in Chinese Language and Literature. I had sublet my apartment in Manhattan.
In 1987, when I returned from Taipei, they guy who was staying at my apartment gave me a piece of paper and said, “This guy Mats called you about 2 weeks after you left.”
I called Mats back immediately and said, “Hey! It’s me, Louise, what did you want when you called? I’ve been in Taiwan for a year.”
Mats said, “Louise, I was calling you to ask you to come to Sweden and marry me!”
I said, “I still love you and I’ll take the next flight to Stockholm.”
Mats: “But I called you a year ago!”
Me: “So what”
Mats: “Well, I met somebody else.”
Well, you can imagine…that was the end of that.
I ended up buying a house on a mountain top in North Carolina and went on to become an International Hotel Accounting Consultant.
I have been a Financial Controller or Consultant in Barbados, Philadelphia, Manhattan, Antigua, Taiwan, Peter Island, Key West, Miami, Durham, Aruba, Marco Island, St. Louis, and Puerto Rico.
NOW, on November 11, 2009 my telephone in “The Middle of Nowhere Next to a Cow Pasture,” North Carolina rang.
You guessed it!
Mats: “Louise, it’s me, Mats is Sweden. I have been looking for you for ten years. Please come to Sweden and marry me. You are the only woman I have ever loved.”
Well!
After I was over the shock, I told Mats that he had to convince me.
Mats HAS convinced me and we are to be married, FINALLY! in January 2010 in North Carolina.
We are both as happy and as in love as we were 28 years ago in 1981.
We have both had full and interesting lives and now, as Mats say, “It is finally time for us.”
So, for all those people who have been alone and wondering what happened to their one true love. I wish you the courage to pick up the phone, hire a detective, do an internet search, ANYTHING to find him or her, because they may be out there missing you, too.
This Thanksgiving I have even more for which to be thankful.
Hey, thanks for the good read.
It’s like a regular fairy tale.
What a wonderful story!
I loved the story.
I’m sorry but I have to stand strong here for you and all of us women. I think you are making a huge mistake. The first time he back out should have sent up bright RED flags!! Love is unconditional and his condition was you waiting for him or not. I have been married 25 yrs this April and respect is the key to a good marriage. Dig deep before you say I DO…You are so beautiful and somebody is out there looking for you to be his priority. It is obvious from your story you are NOT his priority. Good Luck and Best Wishes
I agree with Pam–you had better hope something or someone that strikes his fancy doesn’t come along. You have always been his backup plan. He knows you will always come back, no matter what. Maybe it will work for you–I hope so. I wouldn’t have gone back the second time.
#3 is still my favorite story
Dear Pam and Gaja;
Thank you so much for your concern.
Bless Your Hearts.
Mrs. Louise Annette Svensson
Please read the story of Me & Mats =)
Good Information.
I find it very weird that almost 3,000 people have read all the stories and chosen this one as the verybest love story, yet there are only ten comments, two being sympathetic rather than impressed and three being written by the author herself. Very few have bothered to watch the video, either. Shame on you, Eloise…
Love is patient; love is kind.
Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way: it is not irritable or resentful;
it does not rejoice in wrong doing, but rejoices in truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
And now faith, hope, and love abide,
and the greatest of these is love.
Very Nice LOVE STORY….
Best Wishes….GOD BLESS YOU….
I really enjoy reading this story. I did not know that I had to view the video each time I read this story and voted?
Personal I found this story to be so true from the heart and it displays honesty.
I wish Eloise and Mats the very best and good luck.
Annette, I personally wish you the best of luck in this contest and in your lives together. Although you did not mention in your story the tragic life threating situations you went through and the difficult task of surviving everyday in pain and all that time Mats was looking for you and wanted to marry you, it is still a long lasting true love story. Viewers also do not know the extensive traveling and long hours spent communicating long distance to find your love again. Mats did indeed fly to you and promised to love you, cherish you, and made you his wife in January. The simple fact that you married this man and are willing to move to Sweden after you spent years developing a life for yourself and becoming a success in all that you do I know that he was always in your heart. I am sure that viewers that read this story might not understand how amazing this love is. Please remember YOU ARE ATHOS!!!!!!
Dear thelovinprincess,
Thank you so much for your lovely poem and kind words.
Your generosity shines through.
It is much appreciated.
Mrs. Louise Annette Svensson
Sweet love story. Glad to have read that you and Mats finally got hitched.
I agree with Pam and Gaja. I would give this story much more credit if Mats had been the one to submit the story proclaiming his love like the other finalists have done.
I’m skeptical about how Finalist Number 3 is obtaining so many votes.
This contest went on for several weeks with Finalist Number 2 & 4 running neck and neck with #3 hardly even on the score board.
All the sudden Finalist Number 3 started obtaining hundreds of votes each day and very few comments posted, much less positive comments.
I’m sure the people at Diamond Cutters International intend this contest to market and advertise their product, which is working based on the local articles and news reports promoting Finalist Number 2 & 4. Are there similar publishing’s for Finalist Number 3 that explain the surge in votes?
Dear Mrs. Louise Annette Svensson:
Like all other finalist there was a reason that Diamond Cutters had chosen your story to be one of the top finalist.
It’s obvious that some of the other contestants are not playing fair by making unfair judgements. Maybe if they had read your story than they would had realized that you had a life before, during, and after Mats; and that your love story is unique.
1-You where able to travel all over the world “I have been a Financial Controller or Consultant in Barbados, Philadelphia, Manhattan, Antigua, Taiwan, Peter Island, Key West, Miami, Durham, Aruba, Marco Island, St. Louis, and Puerto Rico.”
2-You made lots and lots of friends including me, Sheila.=)
3-Finally after 28 years of learning life lessons you and Mats where able to appericate the true meaning of love and that was to be with each other. “Mats HAS convinced me and we are to be married, FINALLY! in January 2010 in North Carolina.”
Lousie you are a very special person and a dear friend. You have SO many family and friends from all over the world that just adore you. We all wish you the best of luck with the contest and your future with Mats.