01:00 AM EST on Sunday, November 30, 2003

Kathleen Parenteau and Emery Tondreau

Whispering Pines, West Greenwich

8.10.03

They met via e-mail. A well-meaning mutual friend gave them each other's e-mail addresses. "My blessed friend has told me little," says Kathy Parenteau to Emery Tondreau on Dec. 20, 2000 at 6:52 a.m. "I guess we will just have to play along with this new technology of meeting one another." Same day, 5:44 p.m. from Emery Tondreau: "The 'match maker' said you were 6-feet tall but didn't look it. Now tell me, how can a person be 6 feet tall and not look it? I guess if she hangs around with 7-footers she wouldn't look it."

She's actually only 5-11; he's 5-6. He also knew her age -- she's 48, he's 62 -- and was a bit troubled about the difference. Initially, he told the match-making friend: "She's too young and too tall!"

Eventually, there were phone calls made, messages left. On Dec. 31, they connected. They talked for hours, until Emery asked if they could meet for a drink to celebrate the new year. Kathy said yes. Emery called back minutes later and said, "How about dinner too?"

Emery picked Kathy up at her condo. "I was so nervous; I waited in the car for a half hour because I arived so early. It had been a very long time since I had an official date.

"I fell in love with her the moment I saw her: her smile, her beauty, her welcoming me."

Says Kathy about that night: "We talked -- we were never at a loss for words -- had a great meal, and, at midnight, actually five minutes before midnight, I leaned over and gave Emery a kiss."

On Christmas Eve 2002, Emery presented Kathy with a gift: a blue glass bottle with a message inside professing his love, ending with "will you be my loving bride?"

Kathy grew up in Warwick and Cranston. She's a bookkeeper with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Emery was raised in Providence, and in 1970, moved to Lincoln. He's the vice-president of Cathedral Corporation, a printing/printing software company. He has three children, all living in Rhode Island, and 6 grandchildren.

Today, on the lawn at Whispering Pines, Emery waits for his bride with son, Kevin, at his side, serving as best man. Kathy walks down the aisle, and one can see on their faces that height and age have long since ceased to matter.

But Emery manages to get one last laugh about it. As cocktails are served following the brief ceremony, Kathy is handed a cocktail napkin imprinted with:

Too Young,

August 10, 2003

Emery's doing. And Kathy doesn't know it yet, but Emery had her wedding band inscribed with, what else, "too young, too tall."