A cheeky DJ texted a message to a random number as a joke in 1998 and ended up meeting his future wife.
Donovan Shears was given his first mobile phone on his 18th birthday so decided to send out text messages saying “hello” to made up numbers.
He was stunned when he received a message back from a woman called Kirsty who simply said “hi” and they started exchanging text messages.
They eventually arranged to meet for a date in Donovan’s home city of Coventry, UK and quickly fell for each other.
Donovan Shears was given his first mobile phone on his 18th birthday so decided to send out text messages saying “hello” to made up numbers.
He was stunned when he received a message back from a woman called Kirsty who simply said “hi” and they started exchanging text messages.
They eventually arranged to meet for a date in Donovan’s home city of Coventry, UK and quickly fell for each other.
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FunTranscript
00:00I'm Donovan Shears and I'm Kirsty Shears. I met by a random text message. I've just got a mobile phone and it was a typical weekend playing football with my friends and I was like, oh look what I can do, I've got a new mobile phone, I can send messages to other people, well I actually said like a page, other people.
00:23And I was just showing them pics of a random number, very similar to mine, last few digits different and didn't expect anything of it and then came back from playing football and I'd seen this message saying who's this?
00:37So it was like, Don, who's this? And I got a message back saying, Kirsty? And I was like, okay, female, hello? And it started from there.
00:48And I think I was with my sister, my stepsister at the time and just got this message saying hello and I was like, oh, must be from someone I've given my number to that I've not stored in my phone.
01:00So I thought I'd just answer it and when it came back it was Don. I thought, okay, I'm not really sure I know a Don but it's a bit of a novelty, wasn't it, back then?
01:10And because I'd only had my phone not very long, I just thought, we'll just start messaging him. And yeah, our relationship kind of started from there, we just started talking frequently, finding out more about each other and yeah.
01:22Some of the phone bills we were getting, because you used to get itemised bills back then, so every text message it came and my phone bill was like that, it was like getting through a little mini phone book or catalogue.
01:34And you used to hear the thud and be like, okay, it's that time of the month where he's paying my bill again, how much is it going to be? And you used to see it and be like, oh.
01:41Yeah, and texting, you know, especially back then, it was really impersonal. And so we kind of thought, not just the phone bills, but you should start talking to someone so you can get a better feel for them, rather than just these sort of cold messages, if you like, rather than the warmth you get from someone when you speak to them.
01:58For this first phone call, how do you remember feeling at the time?
02:01Feeling excited, but really, really nervous as well. I was more paranoid about how I'd come across and am I going to be too pushy or overbearing, I really didn't want to mess up.
02:18But yeah, I was really eager to hear what she sounded like as well. And when I first spoke to her, I heard her Scottish accent and it was just so soothing and the conversation just came across so naturally as well.
02:32And yeah, I just found her attractive as well, just from her voice.
02:36Just over the phone.
02:37Just over the phone, yeah.
02:38Yeah, and our conversations just kind of kept flowing, like you say, like we'd known each other just for years, although we'd only been sort of text messaging for a couple of weeks.
02:46Do you still remember that phone call to this day?
02:49Yeah, definitely.
02:51Yeah, I was sitting in my bedroom.
02:53Yeah, I think I was in my bedroom too, and it was just like, you know, you get nervous butterflies, it was kind of like that before you phoned them, it's like, just anxiety and a bit nervous.
03:03I still remember getting myself all dressed up and knitted and my hair and everything else, even though we weren't going to be able to see each other or anything else like that.
03:12You did that even though it was only for a year.
03:14Yeah.
03:15Had a little time for that.
03:16No.
03:17Well, yeah, you did.