When we think of the most romantic professions in the world, it’s unlikely that dentists would make our top five, ten or even twenty.
But one Canadian dentist has made the ultimate grand gesture – flying over 8,000 kilometres to spend a month in Clare tracking down a beautiful redhead he shared a moment with over a year ago.
Now before any minds go wandering… the brief encounter was not of a romantic sort.
Dr. Sandy Crocker from British Columbia was in an Ennistymon eatery on July 9th of last year when he asked a girl ‘with freckles and redish-brown hair’ for directions to the Cliffs of Moher.
Crocker was immediately captivated by the Banner county beauty, but talked himself out of pursuing her as he was leaving the country the next day.
He soon changed his mind though. Speaking to The Clare People Sandy said: “I was leaving Ireland a day later so, at first, I didn’t see the point in pursuing things more – but after she left I decided that I had to. So we paid our bill quickly and myself and my brother started looking for her. We searched the town for an hour or two and couldn’t find her, so we went to the Cliffs but later that evening we came back and looked for her again for another two hours. But there was no trace of her.”
Fourteen months later, the fine Irish Cailín was still haunting the dentist’s dreams, and so he decided last month to return to coastal Clare and search once more. He said; “I went back to work and my life, but there was always a joke here or there from my brother about the Irish girl in Ennistymon. She never left my mind, so I decided why not go back and try to find her.”
Dentist Sandy Crocker on his return visit to Clare – pictured in The Clare People this week
If he does find the object of his affections and she’s not interested, Sandy is ok with backing off. He continued: “If I meet her again and it turns out she is married to a nice fella; the kind of guy who gives her a hug if she is crying before he asks her what’s wrong, then I don’t think I would have a problem with that at all. But who knows, maybe she hasn’t found her person – it’s a 50/50 chance. At least I can say I gave it my best shot – no matter what way this turns out.”
The Her.ie office is divided on whether this grand gesture is Notebook-level romantic, or stalker-level creepy – but if you might be the redheaded dame in question then you can find your Sandy Prince Charming on www.pof.com, where his username is ‘Travel-bug-4u’…