"Find the One" by Ken Chamlee

I did not want to be alone … so I looked for connections beyond the local.

Call it meant-to-be, fate, kismet, benign coincidence, or just plain good luck, I do not care.

Kenneth Chamlee’s work has appeared in eight Personal Story Publishing Project anthologies. His latest collection, The Best Material for the Artist in the World (Stephen F. Austin State University Press), a poetic biography of 19th-century American landscape painter Albert Bierstadt, won the 2024 Outstanding Poetry Award from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. Ken is the author of If Not These Things (Kelsay Books) and his poems have appeared in The North Carolina Literary Review, Tar River Poetry, Cold Mountain Review, and Kakalak, among others. Ken lives in Mills River, North Carolina. 

Author’s Talk

The “How Did You Meet Your Spouse/Partner?” story is a common curiosity. People want to know how other people got together. Was it magic? Fate? Fluke? I’ve heard versions of we worked in the same building, met in graduate school, were introduced at a friend’s party, known each other since high school, went to the same church, and so on. Depending on the timing of the question, it may be answered with sweet sentiment or harsh regret. 

The main story here I have told a few times to friends, and our families know it well. But the backstory, the “pre-meeting” details, they have not heard. It’s personal, a bit revealing, and, I hope, is embarrassing only to me.