Alisha & Matthew
Alisha & Matthew
Our Story
Alisha's Version
In October 2022 we met on a Catholic dating website and he messaged me and we got to talking about his job he had listed on there and we already knew we knew some of the same people which turned into him asking me if he could take me to eat at a restaurant in Hereford. When we got sat down at the restaurant I asked him what his last name was and I was surprised because I had figured mostly all the Wilhelm family was in my own hometown of Nazareth even though it's a big family. We both already were a little worried with the family tree on if we were related but we figured we weren't.
After we ate he invited me to go take a personal tour of a sorghum seed plant he was working at at the time. Me being a farmers daughter I said of course! I hadn't ever toured a seed plant before and thought it would be really cool! He seemed like he knew all the things and really got excited talking about them. I could tell he loved agriculture as much as I did.
On our second date Matthew invited me to hand out Halloween candy at his house. I hadn't ever done that before due to I had lived out in the country my whole life and even when we moved to town we only got just very very few trick or treaters. Matthew got so many trick or treaters!! We sat and talked and talked for a long time and even realized how close our farms were while still handing out candy. I was amazed after all this time we were that close and we never met each other!
On our 3rd date I came an helped Matthew move and build a short amount of fence. Boy I haven't ever seen someone so nervous as Matthew was but I didn't say a thing. I figured I made him so nervous, he may not contact me ever again lol
Not long after that I got very sick for 3 months and I told him the issue and explained to him that maybe it isn't the right time and I promised him that I would contact him when I got through my sickness and he honestly just wasn't for that idea at all. So we continued to talk and he was so patient with me even when I was feeling pretty bad some days and even came to see me even though I tried to tell him it was best not to.
On his birthday I really felt I needed to treat him to a birthday meal since he had taken the time to come see me a few times while I was sick but I told him we had to go somewhere nobody would know who we were so we took an afternoon daytrip through the backroads to Russell's Truck Stop diner in New Mexico and on the way home he begged so hard even though I was still sick to ask me to be his girlfriend. I accepted but told him we didn't need to be in any kind of rush.
After that the rest is history and we are both glad God finally put us together! We can't wait for all that's to come in the near future!
Matthew's Version
After a number of difficult dating experiences I was looking for someone that shared some of the same interests and goals as myself. I was about ready to give up when in October I came across Alisha’s profile on Catholic Match. I had seen her before and even tried to message her a few years prior but received no response. I figured what the heck and messaged her again. I had to wait the 7 days before she received the message because come on who pays for dating sites… She ended up messaging back and we began chatting about all the mutual friends we have and what we both do for a living and as a hobby.
After chatting for a week or two I decided to invite her on a date. Seeing as how there aren’t many options in Nazareth or Dimmitt, I invited her to come up to Hereford to go eat. I offered to pick her up but, naturally, she declined and told me she would meet me there. We ate at Jalisco’s in Hereford and had good conversation about each other and what our interests and goals are. I got my routine question of “where do you see yourself in 10 years” question in and she didn’t bat an eye in answering that she was interested in staying in the panhandle and farming. Usually that raises some eyebrows, but she has long term goals that I appreciated. We finished eating and I didn’t want the date to end. As there are not many fun things to do in Hereford and we weren’t about to drive to Canyon/Amarillo that late in the evening I offered to take her on a tour of the seed company I worked for at the time. She obliged and we went on a tour of the facility. I told her everything I did as a quality manager and showed her the machines and what they did in the cleaning process. Meanwhile my phone was blowing up because some of the other managers drove by and saw my pickup there and looked at the security cameras. I still catch hell for that to this day.
The next weekend was Halloween and we had discussed how both of us had grown up in the country and had never really passed out candy to kids on Halloween. I had a house in town and had never really done that either so I decided to see if she wanted make that a date. She agreed so I went and bought a bag of candy and she proceeded to bring like 3 bags. We had plenty of candy to pass out and even had some leftovers.
Our third date I needed to move some fence to redirect cattle into a different pasture. Something I had done a million times but she decided she wanted to come and help so we did that. I have never really had help building a hotwire and didn’t know what to do with her. She fell right in like she had done it many times. I was hooked because I saw that she wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty and would be someone that could work with me in the future. She was the true farm girl I had always dreamed of finding.
Soon after that date she got sick and kind of backed off saying she needed some time and didn’t know if a relationship was something she needed at the time. I understood and eased off a bit but I didn’t want to let her go so I kept up with weekly checkup texts and calls just to see how she was doing. I prayed that she would get better and we could go back to dating because I really felt like she could be the one. Around my birthday she was feeling a little better and decided she wanted to take me out for my birthday. She didn’t really want to be around town and was looking for a reason to get out of the house so I decided to take her on a little road trip through the countryside up to Russell’s across the state line in New Mexico. She agreed and I proceeded to take her the back way through the Bridwell Ranch. I proceeded to miss my turn and we ended up taking the long way around but it was some good quality time spent together. On the way back I conjured up the nerve to ask her to be my girlfriend and she agreed.
Many dates followed including a 6-mile hike that nearly killed me in Palo Duro Canyon, a few wedding dates across the state, working cattle/farm work, and many dinners and deep conversations. She had introduced me to Lester, her dad, and we hit it off immediately talking about cattle, farming, and family. He sent me home with the church book from Nazareth for nearly a month to make all the connections and figure out that we weren’t related in any way.
Nearly a year later a week before Christmas in 2023 Alisha was away at a training in Lubbock for the day so I called Lester and asked if I could meet with him to visit. He said he had a pen of sick cattle to work but would be willing to visit. I went to the farm and helped him doctor a pen of cattle then I was able to ask him for his daughters hand. We proceeded to talk for nearly 4 hours about Alisha, farming, family, and the future. When we finished visiting I went straight to Amarillo and went ring shopping. I was able to ask Alisha for her hand on Christmas Day and the rest is yet to come.