Internet Matchmakers

I was looking for a Ukranian mate, a partner, someone who would stay with me, be my wife,” said American Cary Dolego to the Associated Press. “All the Slavic ladies in this part of the world are delightful.”

Instead of finding a bride, Dolego got a few days of living homeless on the streets of Kiev after his US bank account was frozen. The beautiful Eastern European woman he met on-line was real enough, but she hadn’t sent him any e-mails. She hadn’t even heard of him until he ended up in the hospital with pneumonia, and she came to visit. A second date for the pair is doubtful. Check out the story at www.msn.com and let me know what you think.

What interests me is this man’s perception of Eastern European women, their rep as delightful companions, delightful enough for him to seek one as a marriage partner. He did a crazy thing for love or his romantic notions of love, but I can’t help admiring that. What crazy thing have you done for love? I walked around Dupont Circle in the rain looking for my boy friend’s brown Honda, so I could touch it. Oh crazy youth! Can you identify?

Last May my husband, the Honda’s owner, and I lived in Krakow for a while. One day my friend, Mila, and her young daughter came over for tea. We were sitting in our small apartment enjoying fruit-topped mazurkas as the afternoon light faded to gray out the windows. Mila, a Lithuanian and lawyer specializing in international law, told me about German men who come to Poland seeking wives. “They have this image of Polish women as beautiful, cheerful, even submissive. “ She laughed. “They believe these women will be ideal wives, mothers, lovers.”

This belief struck deep in my heart. My husband is Polish American and idealizes all things Polish, especially Polish women like his mother and his beautiful Polish American cousins. How did Polish women get this reputation? German and American men believe it to the extent that they travel to Poland through matchmaking services to meet Polish women with the purpose of finding brides.

Dan, a character in my novel, THE MATCHMAKER OF KRAKOW, says that these Internet matchmakers are 21st century versions of arranged marriages. Dan has come to Krakow with his stepbrother, Frank, to support him in his quest to find a Polish bride through Heavenly Hearts, an Internet matchmaker. But Lainie, the narrator, fears stepbrother Dan has an ulterior motive for marrying Frank off. Lainie is in Krakow to stop Frank from making a terrible perhaps even deadly mistake.

At the heart of THE MATCHMAKER OF KRAKOW is a family of children and stepchildren and their smoldering resentments that erupt during Heavenly Hearts Love Connection Week in Krakow. Do you have steps, a brother or sister, or even a stepmother? Do you know the difficulties of blending families? Of who gets their fair share, and who gets more? Of who felt loved, and who didn’t?