WOODBRIDGE widower Ray Davis thought he might never find love again, let alone through the internet.But next week he is due to marry Texan, Mary Francis Byars after a whirlwind romance started in a chatroom.

WOODBRIDGE widower Ray Davis thought he might never find love again, let alone through the internet.

But next week he is due to marry Texan, Mary Francis Byars after a whirlwind romance started in a chatroom.

Mr Davis, 61 a semi-retired psychiatric nurse and the 65-year-old retired nanny both said that they just clicked when they first started talking.

And even though they both tried to put their feelings to one side it just could not be done.

Ms Byars who is staying with Mr Davis at his Catherine Road home at the moment said: "We had been talking for about a month and realised that we were both starting to care.

"We started to back off a bit but that did not work and Ray said that we had to meet."

She came over for a five week stay in November because Mr Davis did not want to visit Texas because of the snakes, alligators and violence!

But she fell in love with Woodbridge and he fell in love with her and a week after she returned to Texas, Mr Davis phoned and popped the question.

Ms Byars said: "I did not have to think about it.

"I would have said yes and stayed here if he had asked me before I left but English men are slower than American!

"That's good though because you should have a more cautious person in a relationship."

Mr Davis said he is looking forward to the wedding and that he certainly did not think he would meet another partner through the internet.

He was widowed in 1999. He said: "You live in hope that you will meet someone else but I never thought it would be this way.

"It is very difficult to say what we liked about one another, but we just clicked."

The couple met through .

Although Mary Francis will be settling in the couple will have a formal wedding in Texas next year and plan to have regular trips to see her seven grown up children.

She also has to go back soon after the wedding to make sure she can get a visa to stay here.

The wedding will be held at The Shire Hall, Market Hill, Woodbridge on May 23, with many of the guests being made up of the friends they met on the chatline.