www.citizen-times.comShe is a 26-year-old single mother of one who longs to be a writer.
She also longs for something else. A husband.
The headline on her blog read: "Husband Wanted: It takes a village to raise a child ... and a city to find a husband."
The blog began on Aug. 9 with a photo of this attractive and articulate woman with these opening words: "It's true ... I'm definitely in the market for a man."
Not just any man. She's been on her own and has learned to carry out her trash, assemble items with power tools and haul her own groceries up the stairs. She's been alone for a while and wants someone to share her life with forever, not just the casual dates she calls "fillers."
"Though I was terrified of it at the beginning, this independence has come to define me," she wrote. "It has forced me to examine what relationships are really about and what I truly seek. I know now that if I am with someone, it will be out of choice and not need."
"I felt like I didn't have much to lose," she said, her toddler playing in the background. "One night I was standing at the stove cooking a huge meal and sulking that I didn't have enough people to feed. I wanted to share the meal."
So she started the blog, www.ahusbandwanted.blogspot.com.
She lamented that over the years, the more she grew and became self-sufficient, the less men came calling. Independence and confidence seemed to scare them away.
"It has put more space between matrimony and myself," she wrote. "I didn't have an issue getting a guy when I was a whiny, needy, insecure little girl full of problems."
In her blog, Ainsworth lists what she wants in a husband. Oddly, she never mentions looks, income or the usual superficial characteristics one sees on the popular online dating sites, which she's tried in the past.
"I want someone who isn't afraid to tell the truth, even if it makes me cry. I want someone who isn't afraid to drop everything and go anywhere. I want someone who isn't afraid to sneak in the back door at a party we weren't invited to."
So far she's received a fair amount of e-mails but no offers, just suggestions, many from women who say it's impossible to find a man in this town. Others from guys telling her to relax and just enjoy sexual encounters.
"I just want something real and a commitment," she told me. "Something stable and predictable and to build off on."
She admits the blog is opening "a huge can of worms," and she's learning the trend in this town is casual relationships.
"Have fun has been the continual theme," she said. "Or enjoy it while it lasts."
This isn't what she wants. Come on Asheville. Let's find this woman a husband.
I try to update her search in a future columns.
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