Tomas Yudai is the OG of using his phone to land a date. The Winnipeg, Manitoba, man found his wife by calling random women in the phone book, but it wasn’t nearly as sketchy as it sounds.

Yudai, who was born in the Philippines, moved to Canada from California in 1967 after getting a degree and wanted to find new friends. He wanted to meet new people, so he hatched a plan.

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“After a week or so I had this idea that maybe I should find some new friends or get connected with other people,” Yudai told CBC News of why he started calling people. “I thought, ‘Maybe I can find other Filipinos here,’ so I went through the phone book looking for Filipino names.”

He called and called until he landed on a woman who invited him over.

“When I was calling people, I wasn’t looking for someone to get married,” he said. “She says, ‘Come over, you know, we’re having a party,’ so I said, ‘Great,’ you know, ‘Thank you,’ and I got the address.” He met his now-wife, Carrie, while she was just in a towel. The party hadn’t started yet.

“I didn’t even know that [my roommate] invited somebody and that somebody was coming early,” said Carrie. “Everything was a blur after that because I thought, ‘This guy is so early and I’m not dressed.'”

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They kept going out to dinner until he finally kissed her on Dec. 26, 1967. “Well, you know, there’s one man for 25 women so you kiss him and that’s it,” she said of why she went for him. “There were so many females and few males because it was mostly nurses and doctors who came first [from the Philippines]. So nurses — everybody [was] female except one or two and a few doctors and most of them were married.”

The pair eventually married and now, 48 years later, they have two children and four grandchildren. Their secret to love success? They let each other have their own interests and hobbies — and sometimes they even travel separately.

“We have lots of friends who are together forever, like even indoors they’re together. I want my space so I give him his space,” Carrie said.

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