Photo by Zachary Siebert / St. Joseph News-Press / Purchase this photo

Karen Cowan displays a photograph taken during her wedding to Mike Cowan at their home or ‘bungalow’ on a farm in Buffalo, Mo., Oct. 23, 1999.

“MIKE COWAN: ASPEN, COLORADO.” The name and address popped up on the screen like any other sales call Karen Cowan received on a daily basis. But this one was different.

“I liked the sound of his voice,” she said.

In 1998, the Massachusetts native had never been married and had taken a year off of dating. Only recently had she sent up a little prayer: “Please give me someone who needs me to love him.”

She sold Mr. Cowan a Bose Acoustic Wave Radio that day, in time for his Super Bowl party. The Denver Broncos fan and the New England Patriots fan shared flirtatious words on that sales call regarding the big game.

“I knew I was going to hear from him again,” Mrs. Cowan said. Yet, she went home and life went on.

To her surprise, Mr. Cowan called during the game and later gloat about the Broncos’ Super Bowl win over the Green Bay Packers. The phone calls didn’t end there. For weeks following, the two spent hours on the phone at night, building a relationship. The love letters were just an extra.

“I just knew something was happening,” Ms. Cowan said. “We were falling in love, and we hadn’t even met.”

It was a month later when Mr. Cowan, an Alaskan outfitter, cowboy and hunter, would fly into Boston’s Logan Airport.

“It was the most important day of my life,” Mrs. Cowan said. She remembers her miniskirt, arriving at the airport an hour early and drinking a Bloody Mary to calm her nerves. The only picture she had of him was an inked-up copy of a fax, but they found each other.

“I just knew that this would be my husband,” she said. “We kissed. We hugged. We cried. For the first time together.”

The following 10 days together in Boston were “heaven,” Mrs. Cowan said. But an end was in sight and the new couple was at a crossroads.

“Do you want me to move to Boston or do you want to move to Aspen?” Mr. Cowan asked her. At 40 years old, Mrs. Cowan had never left her home state.

“I was ready to fly the nest,” she said. She moved to Aspen to be with Mr. Cowan.

The couple stayed in Colorado for a year, then to Buffalo, Mo., where they married on Oct. 23, 1999. The next stop was Alaska, where Mr. Cowan is a trained guide and hunter. For six months out of the year he can be found guiding hunters to moose and bear. But the Cowans now call Fairfax, Mo., home. They moved to a farm just outside the town’s city limits about a year ago.

“This is home,” Mrs. Cowan said. “This is where we want to grow old and rock in our chairs next to each other.”

Jennifer Hall can be reached at jennhall@npgco.com. Ever After is a series that features local couples. To suggest a couple with a great love story, contact the News-Press at kristib@npgco.com.