When Susan Wilson, a corporate secretary from Bedminster, read the personal ad (above) in the July 1988 issue of New Jersey Monthly, she responded, “Dear DWM: …I think I would meet your requirements apart from two things. I am 41 years old and it’s quite some time since I played tennis! However—on the positive side—I am a young 41-year-old and I’d love to take up tennis again! …I came to America from England seven years ago and shall retain my accent. I am secretary to the chairman of a company in Parsippany. I would be happy to send you a photograph if you think you might be interested in developing a relationship.”
Wilson mailed the letter along with a photo of herself with her parents, figuring it “would frighten off any undesirables.” His interest undimmed, DWM—an Annandale insurance broker named Robert P. Kane—took Wilson on a first date on Wednesday, July 7, 1988. “My husband has taken me out every Wednesday ever since,” says Wilson, who on March 19, 1995, became Mrs. Susan E. Kane. This month they are celebrating twenty years together.