One day in spring 2005, I called my uncle who works for Franklin Motors in Jasper, Ala., and told him I wanted a new car, but not just any new car! I wanted a Pontiac Solstice, which I remembered him telling my husband and me about in 2002 when it was just a concept. It was always a dream of ours to own a two-seat convertible. My uncle said that Pontiac had not even started making them yet. I didn’t care — I wanted one of these beautiful cars and was willing to wait no matter how long it took.

During the months of waiting, I started reading everything I could find about the Solstice. I discovered www.Solsticeforum.com and realized I wasn’t the only one with an obsession for these cars. I spent hours reading what others were posting, but was always too shy to post anything myself.

On December 23, 2005, my uncle called to let me know that my beautiful, “cool” Solstice had arrived. What a wonderful Christmas present! I had never actually seen one until I arrived at the dealership… it was breathtaking! For the first time in almost five years there was a real smile on my face, a smile that would not go away. I named my car “Pandora” after Pandora’s Box, because after all the evil and bad escapes, all that is left is hope. I knew that my husband would have been so pleased that I was smiling again.

On January 28, 2006, I met with seven other Solstice owners for lunch and to talk about our cars. On that same day, another group of Solstice owners from Peachtree City, Ga., was also meeting. A few days later, I made my first post to the Solstice forum because Lloyd, a.k.a. “Sol_man”, had taken a video of the Peachtree City meet and put it to music by Warren Haynes entitled “Soulshine.” I must have listened to that song a hundred times before I was able to post. The song moved me like nothing had in such a very long time. I told him how much I enjoyed the video and how much I loved the song. We talked back and forth a few times, and then on Super Bowl Sunday, we agreed to meet at Applebee’s in Anniston, Ala. We began talking and before we knew it, the game was over and the restaurant was trying to close. We walked back to our cars to make the long trips back to our homes, and as we went our separate ways we knew the “magic” had begun.

From that night on, we have been connected like I never thought would be possible again. We alternated traveling every weekend to be together. It was like we had known each other for years. We could finish each other’s sentences and everyone around us thought we had been together for a lifetime. Each weekend was better than the last until Sunday evening rolled around way too soon and one of us would have to make that long drive home.

I always tell people these cars are magical because they have brought people together who really needed each other, people who would have never met if it had not been for these beautiful cars. On April 9, 2006, Lloyd asked me to marry him and six weeks ago he packed up his life and moved to Alabama so we could be together all the time. (He claimed it was to prevent prematurely voiding out our car warranties from all the driving back and forth.) He has given me the most beautiful diamond engagement ring and we are planning to spend the rest of our lives together! Can you imagine having two of these magical cars parked in the driveway?

Check out Anne and Lloyd's slide show.

Take a look at all of our photos on Flickr.