ROMANCE: Endless love

Couple rekindles relationship using Internet

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By BEN STEPHENS

VIEW STAFF WRITER

If you love something, let it go. If it comes back, it's yours. If it doesn't, it was never meant to be. So goes the anonymous saying many people have heard when parting with a significant other, which typically offers little consolation.

But nobody knows this saying better than Green Valley resident Ray Mossholder, who was reunited with his high school sweetheart in May after breaking up with her more than five decades ago.

Mossholder, 69, was just out of a serious four-year relationship earlier this year when he came across the name Georgia Mae Carter on the Web site classmates.com, the same young woman whom he dated for two years at Campbell Union High School in San Jose, Calif., growing up.

In an interview at a Henderson book store Aug. 8, he said he e-mailed her to ask for her phone number.

"I thought 'she's gotta be married and have 50 kids,' but I called her anyway (on May 29)," he said. "And it was love at first word."

After a short second courtship that consisted of many phone conversations, e-mails and a four-day trip to see then Georgia Carter, the couple was married at the Las Vegas Civil Marriage Commissioner's office downtown on Aug. 9. And she is nothing short of excited to be Georgia Mae Mossholder, finally.

"I used to practice writing his name as a kid," she said in a phone interview after the wedding. "Now I can use it for real. It's great."

The two began dating when he was a high school junior and she was a freshman, going to movies, church and other functions. And he remembered what brought him to her.

"She was really cute," he said. "I had a sharp eye (and) haven't lost it."

The wedge that drove them apart was when Ray graduated and followed through with plans to go to Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., more than 400 miles away, he said.

Although they both remember his suggesting they would want to date other people, they can't agree who broke up with whom, she said.

"I really, really, really liked her," he said. "It wasn't easy to just say sayonara."

By the time they found each other the second time both had been married before and had children, but both were looking for romance again. Georgia said she had been divorced since 1985 and felt like she was facing a bleak future. One night she said she prayed, and received her husband three days later.

"I felt like this was meant to be," she said. "Too bad it was 52 years later."

They have the same trust and respect for each other, they said, and the magic has largely remained the same between them.

Asked how things have changed, Georgia laughed and said, "he's a better kisser now."

"He was good then, but he's great now," she said.

Ray, Georgia and her Siberian husky were heading to Redding, Calif., after a short honeymoon in Las Vegas. There, they will attend the School of Bethel bible study church and do evangelical work. Ray, a devout Christian, has a doctorate in theology and has written three Christian books.

Ray led Georgia to Christianity during their courtship, doing bible studies and praying together over the phone. She said going to the bible school is worthwhile and will bring a new, rejuvenating purpose to her life.

She said she joined a church when they were younger because she was dating him, but that she never fully understood her religious commitment until now.

"I have never been this excited about anyone or any thing, outside my relationship with the lord," he said.

Georgia said she is grateful to the Internet and to classmates.com for helping change her life.

"She's my state of mind," Ray said, referring to her name. "I feel like the most blessed man in the world, like my last years are going to be my greatest. To know you're going to laugh your way through the rest of your life is fun."