Coventry couple recall how random text ended happily ever after
www.bbc.com
Donovan Shears met his future wife while he was "showing off" to friends by texting random numbers.

He had been given his first mobile phone for his 18th birthday and had just discovered text messaging.

He made up a random number and sent off a message saying “hello”, to which his future wife Kirsty wrote back “hi”.

They said: “That single moment led to over 20 years of love, laughter, and partnership.”

Out of several messages to unknown numbers he sent from the Coventry pub where he was working that night, Kirsty in Cleethorpes was the only one to reply.

In 2002, the couple got married in Scotland, where Kirsty is from, and now have two children, aged six and nine.

  • PhobosAnomaly
    59·
    2 days ago

    Stuff that would only ever happen in the 2000’s right there. Back when it was “normal” to text your so-called number neighbours - the number one digit above and below yours.

    Now, people are a little bit more switched on so would probably think it’s a phishing scheme, or devices would probably screen it out as a scam.

    • HossenfefferEnglish
      8·
      1 day ago

      I remember my dad would answer the phone with “Feffertown 5841, Augustus Hossenfeffer speaking.”

      Now I answer the phone with a sullen and suspicious “Hello?”

      • PhobosAnomaly
        3·
        1 day ago

        Off topic, but I rarely get to answer the phone these days. Not through choice, but ever since I enabled the automatic blocking of withheld numbers it has made my life so much quieter. That, and my workplace only ever calls out from a withheld number, which is fuckin’ magic.

        In ye olde days though, our household used to answer with the name of the town and the three digit identifying number for that line.